When The Devil Has a Heart
by FangedxWars
Summary: Your first love never really dies. Damon didn't want to believe that, especially with the manipulative games that Katherine loves to play. But when the opportunity arises that he must choose between her and Elena...he makes a choice he never saw coming...
1. A Dirty Lie

**CASTING CALL:**

**Damon Salvatore** – Yoshi

**Katherine Pierce ** – Joy

**Authors Note:** Please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors that you may encounter. This writing is older and we did not proof it before posting.

**DAMON'S POV –**

Hope. It was a funny thing. Mostly because it was completely non-existent and Damon knew that now. He knew that a few days ago when Elena's life hung in the balance. She survived and he was grateful, but he had accepted it now. It was his time to die and he was ready for it. His life had been a long one, and the unfortunate thing was the majority of it had been wasted trying to free Katherine from a tomb she was never imprisoned in, whilst making Stefan's life miserable. Now his little brother was out there trying to save him, and going to god knows what length to do so. All Damon could think about was Elena now. _Elena._ His beautiful breath of fresh air, the reason why he had changed…or tried to. It was all for her, all because he loved her, truly _loved_ her. It felt as though they were being filled with gravel, and with each passing second they expanded less and less as he slipped closer to the darkness. "Elena…please," Damon struggled to speak, finding that to be a chore as he wheezed slightly. He held back the cough, not wanting to hack up blood on Elena and alarm her more than she already was. "Don't try to find Stefan…you'll get killed…Klaus is still—" He tried to take a deep breath. "He's still out there, Elena. And so is Elijah. Your life could be in danger…" he trailed off for a moment, his eyes slowly lifting to meet hers. "You should've known me in 1864, you would've liked me," he said honestly. He was so sweet and innocent then.

It was before Katherine had turned him into a bitter monster. **"I like you now…just the way you are,"** Elena answered sweetly, and he could see tears welling up in her eyes. His crystalline oceans shifted up to her heart shaped face and the perfection of her olive skin. She had just lost her aunt, her biological father, and yet…here she was, ready to watch someone else she cared for leave the world. He hated this. Hated that the stupid mutt had done this to him, but he couldn't let him hurt Caroline…that hadn't been an option in his mind. The blonde Barbie infuriated him, but he did care for her—even if he never admitted it out loud. His eyes gently closed, the darkness enveloping him as his surroundings began to blur. Elena's heartbeat was lulling him to his grave, and if that was his lullaby—he'd take it with a smile. "Thank you," he finally said. **"Your welcome."** That was when an all too familiar voice rang in his ears. There was so many witty things he wanted to say, but he was too weak, and Katherine had already answered what he was going to ask anyway. Which was why should he thank her? She had brought a cure. He watched as she moved to the bed, Elena instantly getting out of the way as she dumped a liquid in his mouth. It was blood, the iron and salt taste burst on his tongue like rainbows as it went down the back of his throat. He could already tell it was working, his arm slowly began to stop burning…and he could breathe better.

Elena was already asking about Stefan. He wanted to know too. Where was his brother? He listened carefully, watching the exchange that was happening between Katherine and her doppelganger. God she was such a cruel bitch to Elena. _She's nothing like you,_ he thought to himself, but he knew it was a lie. Elena was exactly like Katherine, she was just sweeter and kinder. But he knew she loved him and his brother, and she would choose Stefan…because he would always win. He was the better brother. Damon was getting angrier and angrier at her words. She was intentionally trying to cut Elena and make her overwhelmed with guilt, and he could see that it was working. Every nasty remark she inflicted, Elena's face would drop and her eyes would grow weaker and more dim. He wanted to intervene, wanted to say something, but he was speechless as he listened to the truth in between Katherine's insults. Klaus had provided the cure, and now Stefan was paying for it. He knew how Klaus was, and what he would have Stefan doing wouldn't be good. Katherine only confirmed this when she began talking about how much blood he was ingesting. Damon couldn't believe the despair he felt for Stefan. Several months ago he would've been throwing confetti at the thought that his brother finally turned to the 'dark side' and became a real vampire. Now it just saddened him. He was shutting out the one thing that made him, Stefan. The one thing that made him a better person than Damon would ever be. He was giving it up. Just to save him.

When she started to threaten Elena's family he couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer. "Katherine…" Damon said firmly, but she seem to brush him off as the two continued talking. The moment Elena raised her hand to slap Katherine Damon knew it wouldn't be good. Suddenly she was hissing out in pain, watching as Katherine was about to dislocate Elena's arm. He tried to move from the bed, but he was still recovering, his entire body aching as he looked at her powerless…and angry. "Katherine let go of her or I _will_ kill you. Maybe not today, but tomorrow you can bet on it," he said in a deep voice as he narrowed his eyes on her. She let go, but he doubted it was because of what he said. When Elena's eyes connected with his, he just nodded solemnly. If she didn't come back he would go get her tomorrow. Besides, she was safer in this house where no one could enter unless she permitted them. Her house was like a welcome mat for vampires, she was anything but safe. But he was sure she wanted to see Jeremy after everything that had happened, because she hadn't received the chance to yet. So he let her go, listening as Katherine did to the sound of an engine and a car peeling out of the driveway. "Well honestly Katherine, now that you're here…I wish I _WAS_ dead," he hissed, glaring at her. His blood was already at a rolling boil, but it was about to burst when she made the remark about Stefan.

"You selfish bitch," Damon said, "no I am not glad my brother is finally a monster. He did it to save my life, and I realize now Stefan isn't Stefan unless he clings to his humanity. I plan on saving him as soon as the sun rises," he retorted, already knowing he was going to need her assistance…and he wasn't even sure how he'd get it. He felt like ripping her throat out when she started talking about Elena. He didn't want Elena, he had already accepted the fact he would never have her…and that was fine. Stefan deserved her, he didn't. "No Katherine…" Damon began, "unlike you I don't take what isn't mine from other people…not anymore," he whispered. "Elena is better off with Stefan, and I think that just makes you bitter because you want him, don't you?" He mused with a raise of his brow. "Didn't think Stefan told me?" He continued. "Yeah I heard _alllllll_ about your little day with him downstairs in the basement, where you two rehashed the past and you told him you loved him," he chuckled. If she wanted to be a bitch he'd be an asshole. The two could play this game, and they often did anyhow. "If I were to guess you _want_ me with Elena, just so you have a better chance at getting Stefan wrapped around your little finger again. But don't flatter yourself, Katherine. Anyone who speaks to Elena and then you knows who the better choice is…lets face it…I may always be second best, but that's what you'll always be too. Us brothers will always pick Elena over your ass any day," he grinned. "Oh and don't expect a 'thank you' from me in regards to the cure. We both know you only did it because Klaus probably ordered you to…that and Stefan would never forgive you if you let me die."

**KATHERINE'S POV –**

Katherine stood in the corner of Alaric's apartment, back against the cool brick and her dark hues watched as Stefan gurgled against the blood bag, his lips covered in the sticky red consistence of blood. She stared at him, hard. She hated Klaus in that moment for making this so easy. She had been trying to do this for what seemed like ages when it actuality she had only been in Mystic Falls for a few months. She had wanted to be Stefan's demise, the reason that he turned into the animal she made him into, but no, Klaus had to take that privilege from her and it angered her. And Stefan was fucking himself over all for what? His stupid ass brother who was trying to play hero? All Damon cared about was stealing Elena from Stefan and the thought of her boys fighting over her doppelganger made bile rise in her throat in disgust. Yet, here was the younger brother, on his eighth bag of cold blood, selling his soul to the devil to save his pitiful brother, the brother that would gladly steal Elena from him, given the chance. She desperately wanted to go over there and reach for the blood and drink it herself, but she had been commanded to stand in the corner and there she stood. She hated Klaus more than anyone and to be under his command was killing her. She was Katerina Petrova, she did not bend to anyone's will and to be forced to do as commanded really hit a nerve with her, but what was she to do? She doubted that there would be a part of her left after this. Klaus would kill her, she knew it.

A low growl began to form in her throat as she stared over at the scene unfold, a ninth bag of blood sliding it's way over to Stefan. The empty bags began to fill the space at Stefan's feet, blood spatter messily cascading to the wooden floors only to Klaus' pleasure. **"Katerina."** Katherine's sharp gaze drifting from the guzzling sounds of Stefan's mouth over to Klaus. She noted the pleased expression on his lips, the hint of a smile playing at the corners of his lips like he had something to be proud of and she knew that he did. To get Stefan to down nine bags of blood was impressive, a feat she would have gladly loved to conquer herself. Her hues glanced down to Klaus' arm that lifting, his finger curling towards him in a 'come hither' gesture and she rolled her eyes, kicking herself away from the wall, arms still persistently crossed over her chest as she walked over to him. She, unconsciously, found herself protecting her heart, knowing that, at any moment, Klaus could decide to reach into her chest and tear out her heart right before her eyes. According to him, she had a penance to pay for her betrayal centuries early; running was a sin after all and he was God, he had the ability to punish her.

He reached forward, his smile widening as his fingers graced the side of her face, tucking back a thick curl of brunette hair behind her ear. **"Katerina. I have a job for you."** She hated herself for finding the accent on his tongue so alluring still to this day, but more so she regretted not falling under the spell of his brother. She watched him go into the kitchen and from a cupboard he pulled out a little vial like bottle and she knew what he was going to do without even thinking. Both she and Stefan looked at Klaus as he tore open his flesh and let his blood drop into the container until it sufficed him to stop. He corked the bottle and went back to Katherine and she immediately tensed, her muscles clenching under the pressure and she realized that if she had a heart, it would be beating fast, like a hummingbird. **"Take this to Damon and let him know what his brother gave up for him, yes?"** Klaus held out the vile and Katherine upturned her palm and immediately wanted to keep it for herself, but her command was given and she knew that she had to uphold to what he wanted. **"Don't be selfish Katerina. Hurry along now. I'll be seeing you soon."**

Katherine's slender fingers wrapped around the vile and she glanced over at Stefan with surprisingly soft eyes as if to tell him that she was sorry, but she couldn't stay because, when it came down to it, Katherine would not risk her own skin for anyone, not even the man that she loved and within the next second she was gone, running as fast as she can at an inhuman speed to put as much distance between Klaus and herself as she could, but the reality of the situation was that she would never be able to get away from Klaus, he would always find her, he had his ways and he proved that over the course of the last few days. She was terrified of him now, the new power surged off of him like a powerful aura, but she couldn't worry about him now, she had to go to Damon. If given the choice she wouldn't have found herself outside of the Salvatore boarding house, but her orders were clear and she made her way inside. Upon entering the home, she could hear voices from upstairs and her sensitive nose picked up on the scent of Elena. She silently made her way upstairs to the smell and found a scene that she hadn't quite expected.

"**You would have liked me…"** Katherine smiled a little realizing that he was talking about his past and the urge to laugh swept over her, but she kept silent wanting to see what would come of this with Elena lying ever so close to her boyfriend's dying brother. **"I like you now… just the way you are."** What happened next, she definitely hadn't predicted. With curious eyes, her sharp vision watched as Elena hesitantly kissed Damon's lips and an anger began to pulse through her veins and she realized if she didn't control it, the bottle of blood meant to save Damon's life would break in between her fingers and dribble down to the floor. **"Thank you."** **"You're welcome."** Katherine rolled her eyes, licking her lips as she stared at them. "Well, it's me you should be thanking. I mean, I'm the one who brought the cure." Katherine watched as Elena stood up and put distance between her and Damon before she started over to Damon. "I thought you were dead." **"I was."** Katherine sighed, twisted off the cork as she sat down on the bed next to Damon and brought the bottle to his lips. "I owed you one." She smiled a little as she watched the dark red liquid cascade into Damon's mouth and she hated that the cure was so close, but leaving her grasp.

"**Where's Stefan?"** Katherine gave Damon's cheek a little pat before she got to her feet, capping the now empty bottle. "Are you sure you care?" **"Where is he?" **An evil smiled formed on Katherine's lips as she lifted the bottle, motioning to it. "He's paying for this. He gave himself over to Klaus. I wouldn't expect him anytime soon." **"What do you mean 'he gave himself over'?"** "He just sacrificed everything to save his brother… including you. It's a good thing you have Damon to keep you company. Oh, it's okay to love them both. I did." Katherine tossed the bottle over to Elena and laughed a little, throwing her head back with a manipulative smile plastered over her lips. "You should probably get home Elena. Wouldn't want anything to happen to your family in your absence now would you?" It was an obvious threat, but Katherine wanted Elena to leave. **"What does that mean?"** Katherine took a step forward and looked Elena dead in her eyes which were identical to her own. "You have no idea how cruel Klaus can be. He's not finished here and it wouldn't surprise me if he sent Stefan after your dear brother. You should have seen him drinking all of that blood… it was like the monster in him had come back to life. You would have loved it."

And almost as soon as the words had come out of her mouth, Elena's hand shot out to slap Katherine across the face, but Katherine was faster and she grabbed a hold of Elena's wrist before it could collide with her face. Instead of simply stopping there, she bent Elena's arm backwards, threatening to break Elena's bone in two. "I wouldn't try that Elena." Katherine hissed between her teeth, pushing further, forcing Elena to have to bend at the knee backwards to prevent her arm from snapping, but Katherine let go. "You should leave." Katherine spat and watched as Elena glanced over at Damon as if to ask for assurance and soon enough she was leaving. Katherine stood there and waited for an engine to start and once she heard wheels on loose gravel she turned to Damon. "Have fun dying Damon?" Katherine looked at him with a sly grin, enjoying this all too much because she knew she had successfully pulled Elena away from him and washed Damon with guilt for his brother. "Or are you finally happy that you succeeded in turning your brother into a monster? And all because of what? To try and impress his girlfriend. You never learn do you? Stefan is always going to win. Stefan always gets the girl."

**DAMON'S POV –**

Damon just glared at her, unable to argue. Of course he couldn't hurt her. Even when he was healthy she was still strong just given her age alone. Still, that didn't keep him from wanting to try to hurt her as much as he wished to. "Sure I do," he challenged. He doubted Katherine would put harm to him. As big of a bitch as she was, she still cared for him on some level…or so he wanted to believe. Either way, if she tested that theory he wouldn't be too heartbroken over the outcome. "Well…wherever he's going, I intend to find him. Stefan needs to help and I'm not going to abandon him when he needs me the most. I care about him…a lot, but I hated admitting it until recently. He apologized for my fate, but the more I think about it the more I realize that he wasn't the one who owed me an apology at all," he hissed, his cerulean optics narrowing in on her. She had made him fall in love with her and he had given everything to her, he even willingly wanted to turn so he could be with her. What had Katherine done? Used him and Stefan, turning them against one another until their fates were decided for them when they tried to save her from getting trapped in the tomb; the tomb that he had assumed she was caught in for 145 years as he diligently worked to get her out. Katherine was a cold hearted bitch. She didn't even realize what he had sacrificed…what Stefan did.

She never would either, she only cared for herself and that's why Damon loathed her now more than anything…with every fiber of his being. He looked at her, completely outraged by her remark. "We didn't belong to anyone, Katherine…least of all you. You just had us believe that you were actually sweet…and you weren't," Damon snapped. The fact that she had the gull to say it, let alone believe it, made him even more livid as he sat stewing on his bed—weak and impatient to the healing blood circulating through his system. "She deserves Stefan…he loves her the way she needs to be loved…that's why I will get him back," he stated confidently. Damon shook his head, chuckling under his breath at her. "You seem so sure she'll be dead," he muttered. "That's if Stefan doesn't turn her, then what are you going to do? Kill his beloved? Do you think he'll really give you a chance then, Katherine? You're so stupid," he murmured, rolling his eyes. "Instead of actually winning Stefan over the right way, you attempt to do it the backwards way. Being a complete bitch to everything he cares about. You ruin his life. He hates you; you know that, don't you? Good luck trying to turn back the hands of time. If you would've done it correctly the first time around you wouldn't be having an issue at all!" He exclaimed, and he loved being right just as much as she enjoyed being a ruthless bitch. He ignored her jab about being alone.

The truth was he was just as stubborn as she was. If he wanted a lover he could have one, even without compulsion. It just took a little effort…a little _humanity_, and that was something Damon Salvatore did _not_ like letting in. Elena was the only person he had softened up for, but he was quickly hardening himself again…because he knew she would never be his. "Well he died the moment he learned the woman he loved wasn't in the tomb…that she had been free all along and knew where he was but didn't give a shit," Damon hissed in reply. In a split second her hand was wrapped around his throat and he was being pressed into the supple mattress, her legs straddling him on the bed. His nostrils flared when he felt her warm breath by his ear. It wasn't that long ago this position would've had him with a rock hard erection, and even now it was hard to ward one off on her beauty alone. Bitch or not, she was the best lover he'd ever have…but he wouldn't be so easy. He moaned a little as her wet tongue trailed along his neck, his eyes snapping shut as he tried to ignore her. It became hard to do. Her voice was so melodic and silky, leading him into a trance. He was actually thinking of doing what she asked, but as he started to lean forward she was already off of him on the other side of the room. He was pissed now. Outraged. She was teasing him…mocking him. "God Katherine, you're not even good for ass anymore," he muttered, not wanting to let on how upset with her he really was. "Why don't we just cut the bullshit and get to the point. I have a brother to rescue…and you're the only person strong enough to help me. What do I have to do to get you to agree to a rescue mission?" He asked her.

**KATHERINE'S POV – **

"Oh come on! I was sweet and loving, your problem with me was the fact that I knew what I wanted and I wasn't afraid to manipulate it out of either of you. You forget that you fell into my hands so willingly Damon. If you want to blame someone for your pain, blame yourself for falling in love so easily." Katherine spat at him, she didn't like being disrespected, but that was all that Damon seemed capable of. She knew that he didn't think poorly of her completely because whether he liked it or not, she was always going to be his first love and she was always going to be haunting him for the rest of his life. It did irritate her that he seemed to have moved on from her though. She liked having both of the Salvatore brothers hung up on her, it was nice and not having either of them begging for her love irritated her. It wasn't that she needed either of them, but she wanted to be able to have some fun and so far she had been shit out of luck. Granted, when she had gotten here, she had had her opportunity to fool around with Damon, but what she really wanted was Stefan and now she was stuck. She was going to wait for a while to get him back, there was no way in hell that she was going to go and step on Klaus' toes and get herself killed and that was one thing that Damon had hit the nail on, Katherine would never put herself in danger to save another person's life.

"It's called Plan B, Damon. I always have one." She shrugged, noticing the bulge in his jeans, her eyes playfully dancing over his frame before she looked into his crystal oceans and found an angry lust in there that attracted her and she wanted to throw gasoline on that fire. Katherine tugged at her leather jacket, pulling it down the length of one arm and the next before discarding it to the side, not really caring if it ended up on the floor or not. "Why don't you take what you want from me, hmm?" She suggesting, daring him to do his worst if he made that decision. "Oh, that's right you're not man enough to do shit." She mocked him, insulting him for doing the same to her. She was only happy to piss him off because she knew where that could get him. Katherine hadn't forgotten Damon, she was still very aware that the man that had fallen in love with her was coming through and back into his life thanks to Elena, but she also knew that she could twist him any which direction she wanted to. However, she wasn't going to take his fucking attitude with a smile and pour honey on his dick just because he was in a cranky mood. She was going to make him pay and pay heavily.

"See, the problem with your situation is that I can find Stefan on my own without you and without even so much as lifting a finger. You are unnecessary baggage that I don't need to deal with so the question is, why the hell should I help you?" That was the truth. Katherine was beautiful enough to sway many vampires to help her out and because of that she was deadly and she had the other benefit of having lots of people that owed her favors; she may have not been the most likeable person in the world, but she was clever. She would do things for certain people knowing that sooner or later they would come in handy to her. That was the reason why she let Damon feed from her when he was human and the reason why she forced blood down Stefan's throat all those many years ago. She knew that, eventually, the both of them would come in handy to her, but more so for her entertainment and Damon was providing her with plenty of laughs now. "It's good to know that you are already aware of the price that comes with asking for my help, but it's too bad that you don't know what I want because you may not like it one bit."

Katherine smiled mischievously as she crossed back over to him, ready to torture him again because she knew that she was ever so talented at bringing him pain, no matter the type. She leaned over him, her feminine hand purposely resting up against his thigh, her fingers wrapping around him muscle, tightening uncomfortably so much so that if he had been human, she would have crushed his leg to mush. "First things first Damon, you need to get yourself better which is going to require sleep and lots of blood because, as I understand it, you've been coughing up most of what you've been consuming and no, I'm not going to baby you. You can get the damn blood yourself, you ungrateful piece of shit." Katherine dug her fingernails into his thigh, ripping through his dark faded jeans and into the plump flesh beneath. She felt his blood pool at her fingers and begin to overflow and dribble down his thigh. "The next time you call me stupid, be prepared for hell." Her vice grip deepened to bone as her fingertips clawed into his body, opening him up before she pulled her hand back. She looked at her blood stained fingers and brought her pointer finger to her lips. She took her digit into her mouth and sucked his sweet blood off of the tip as tough she had chocolate covering her finger. "Maybe I was wrong. You are still delicious on my tongue." She reached down and grabbed the blanket and used it to clean her fingers before she quickly used the same hand to slap him across the face, her nails catching him, ripping scratches along his cheek. "It isn't wise being such a dick to the woman that you need help from. Come to think of it, I really don't feel like helping your sorry ass do anything. Looks like you are going to need to do a bit of convincing m'dear."

**DAMON'S POV –**

"Right, I'm so sorry Katherine. Next time I won't believe all the loving things you said, I'll just remember that you're a selfish bitch who likes playing with people like their fucking puppets for your entertainment," Damon snarled. The longer she stayed in his bedroom, the more he wanted to kill her. At this rate he'd take pleasure in beating the shit out of her and he didn't care if he died trying. She had no idea how much he had loved her, how much he had risked for her. He was willing to send Stefan to his grave just to make her happy, just to release her from the tomb…and for what? For nothing! She didn't even realize that when they first woke up as vampires, still in between their transition, that Stefan could've cared less that she was 'dead'. He just wanted to feed and start his new life as a monster of the night. Damon grieved for her. He didn't want to be a vampire; he wanted to die, because a life without Katherine wasn't even fathomable to him. He loved her more than anything and accepted her for what she was. Stefan hadn't. She had to compel him just to make him unafraid, but she never had to do the extra work for him. He loved her the way she was and he was willing to give up his own mortality to spend an eternity with her. Katherine stole his life, stole his heart, and then crushed it underneath her shoe like he meant nothing at all. He was sick of her bullshit and more sickened by how Stefan was always the number one choice.

_Don't take this out on your brother_, he thought to himself, as he watched Katherine take off her jacket; more nasty words slipping past her lips. He had just gotten over the past 145 years…or at least he hoped he had, successfully, but drudging up the past and having this dance of banter with Katherine was only bringing the pain back to the surface. He was remembering why he hated Stefan, remembering why he spent most of his time making his life miserable. Maybe he didn't want to save him. _Don't think that_, he told himself again, his eyes hardening on her when she stated she didn't need him to find Stefan. He couldn't very well argue, he knew that she didn't. She was Katherine, she had men and women falling at her feet—waiting to lick her ass if that's what was going to please her. But Damon refused to be one of those people anymore. It was done. Over. And now he truly regretted even asking her for her assistance, he would've preferred to die getting Stefan back on his own than get so desperate as to result in needing her help. He didn't even want to ask what she wanted or what her price was, he didn't want her help anymore. He'd place this a different way. Suddenly she was on top of him again, her slender finger nails gripping his leg as her chocolate hues captured his in an intense gaze. He clenched his draw when she first dug her fingernails in, feeling his denim jeans give way. It was when her nails sunk through his skin next that he growled, his eyes starting to water as he glared at Katherine, helpless to stop it.

He groaned out loud, nearly crumpling over in pain as her nails dug further into him—nearly to his bone. Blood was running down his legs, pooling beneath his thigh and soaking the sheets as he tried to catch his breath. He was still hurting as she sickly licked his blood off of her fingers. Then her hand came in contact with his face, ripping scratches across it with her claws. "You think I'm going to beg, Katherine?" Damon asked through a hiss as he narrowed his eyes on her. "I'm not, and I'm not convincing to do shit," he spat. It was a long shot, but if he were to guess, Katherine may have had a lot of friends but none of them would be as strategically clever as he was when it came to making plans and executing them. After all, the Masquerade idea had been his and he got her in the damn tomb where she belonged without a hitch. If they hadn't have staked Elijah she'd still be there…and that thought amused and pleased him so much he wished he could throw her ass back in there himself. Therefore he refused to do what she wanted him to, which was to kiss ass to get what he wanted. He was above that now. He hated Katherine and he would not bow to her wishes, but he knew she wouldn't leave…oh no, she wouldn't. She was never happy when she didn't get what she wanted and she'd stay until she could. With that in mind, Damon reached for his cell phone a smile on his face as he looked up at her. "Get out, Katherine," he sneered, knowing she would probably go into the guest bedroom down the hallway.

He hit speed dial to Elena, waiting for her to answer. Not only was his leg killing him and his face burning, but he knew exactly what to do to get under Katherine's skin. Elena. His secret weapon. "Hey Elena," Damon said softly into the phone. Sure, he was still upset over the kiss they shared but he was going to have to get over it eventually, right? Now was as good as time as any, because Elena could serve a greater purpose here. "Yeah Elena, I'm not doing so well," he mused darkly, his eyes shifting up. Katherine hadn't moved yet. "Katherine refuses to help," he added. "Well you know how she is…" Elena was already promising to be right over. "Thank you," he said, before he hung up the phone. He could've attempted to go downstairs by himself, but given his weakened state…and now the pain Katherine had inflicted he didn't want to. He watched Katherine storm out of the room, but as expected he heard her go into the guest room. It was only fifteen minutes later that Elena was running back up the stairs, gasping when she saw the bed covered in blood and the wound on his face. **"Damon,"** Elena said, concerned as she went by his side. She may not have loved him like he wanted, but she did care and that was more than he could say for Katherine. **"She's such a monster,"** Elena said, shaking her head as she disappeared into his bathroom and returned with a wet washcloth. She pressed it to his cheek tenderly, her eyes looking at him but her mouth saying nothing.

"Can you go get me blood bags, Elena? I'm going to need more to heal," he explained. She nodded right away, disappearing to do what he requested. It wasn't long before she was returning again, five bags in her hand as she rested them on his nightstand and returned to his side. He would never understand why Katherine couldn't just be nice, but he wouldn't be holding his breath to see if she'd change. Elena tended to the claw marks on his leg, washing him clean as she drank his blood—now on his third bag. **"You should let me change the sheets,"** she suggested.

**KATHERINE'S POV –**

Katherine listened to Damon as he spoke to Elena with a disgusted look on her face. He was a little piece of shit and he needed to be taught a lesson. Actually, she could think of multiple reasons that she should knock some sense into him, but he was persistently trying to be good and that wasn't going to help their situation in the least. If he was going to try and find Stefan and go against Klaus he needed to get his fucking backbone back into his system and the only way to do that was to create an atmosphere in which he could see just how vulnerable he was. She was doing him some good and she knew it, but he didn't. Katherine wanted Stefan back just as much as he did and probably Elena did, but Katherine wasn't as stupid as either Damon or Elena were and so she wouldn't go skipping over to Klaus with a death wish. Katherine was smart enough to have escaped his grasp once and she was smart enough to do it again, but pushing for a third way out was like trying to see if she had any more luck left in her to do anything with. She had all sorts of tricks up her sleeve, but Klaus was older than she was therefore exceedingly wiser than she or Damon could ever hope to be and now he was all powerful and shit which didn't leave either of them with very many options. And then it certainly didn't help that Stefan had already given himself over to the bloodlust and only Elena could be naïve where that area was concerned. Both Katherine and Damon knew that there was a possibility that Stefan wouldn't want to come back from the darkness he had fallen into. It was just that delicious.

"You are such an ass." Katherine spat, turning on her heel and leaving the room, her brain already working on overdrive coming up with a plan and she knew exactly what to do. She and Elena were so much alike, but there was one thing that Elena could never do that Katherine could and that was impersonate her doppelganger. Elena was too sweet and innocent to pull off the evil and greed that resided in Katherine's chocolate eyes, but Katherine knew how to be pure and loving because she too, at one time, had been the same. She could be exactly like Elena and impersonate her mannerisms and the way she talked and all she needed was a flat iron to do so. So Katherine went off into the guest bedroom and heated up her flat iron and proceeded to get the wave out of her natural dark locks of hair. It didn't take her too long, a few minutes maybe, but she didn't have all of that much time to do what she needed to before she heard the engine cut outside of the boarding house and she knew that it was time for her to place nice with Damon. She crept out of her room and made it outside without so much as a creak in the floorboards and met Elena just as she slammed the door shut to her car. "Hello Elena." Katherine smiled her hand already falling against the back of Elena's head before Elena could say a word, sending the girl into a limp state, but before she could fall, Katherine caught the girl in her arms.

She took Elena inside and down into the basement so she could lock Elena into the little cell that was ever so conveniently empty for Katherine to do what she pleased with. "I hope you don't mind, but I'll need to borrow your clothes." Katherine whispered, kicking off her pumps before taking off her skinny jeans and tank top. She was careless with Elena as she removed the girl's frumpy clothing, not really concerned with making sure her head hit the floor or not or if she was being too rough with Elena's body. Before too long she had on Elena's one size too big jeans on her frame and her t-shirt over the rest of her and she grumbled a little. 'How is she even comfortable walking out in public in this shit.' Katherine wondered, grabbing onto Elena's purse for some perfume knowing full well that was one thing that Elena kept in her purse. She sprayed some of it onto her neck and hair before taping Elena's mouth shut and then locking her up to the chains that were attached to the walls. "Toodle-loo."

Katherine waved her fingers a little, stepping out of the cell before shutting it and locking it behind her. She quickly made her way up to Damon, running up the stairs and into his bedroom gasping for air for the lungs that she didn't really need to survive. Her eyes fell on Damon's face first before travelling down to the blood on the bed and she looked at him so appalled and shocked that she knew he was already falling into her trap. "She's such a monster." Katherine shook her head, dumping her purse to the side so she could rush over to the bathroom and grab a wet washcloth. She went back over to him and pressed it against his face, her eyes training into his oceans as she took tender care of him. "Of course, I'll be right back." Katherine set the washcloth down and did as he asked and retrieved five bags of blood for him that she set to the side for him to drink. She then went down to his legs and with the washcloth she gently dabbed the blood from the puncture wounds that she had inflicted on him. "I guess there isn't a point in me bandaging your wounds? It looks like they are already healing." She marveled down at his leg like she was a human who had never seen something so miraculous before, but then she smiled up at him gently. "You should let me change the sheets and I won't take no for an answer."

Katherine set aside the washcloth and went over and took his arm and propped it over her shoulder as though she was naïve enough to believe that Damon needed help getting from his bed to the chair, but she was trying to be Elena and Elena was always trying to be helpful. She feigned weakness as she tugged him up, letting Damon do most of the work anyway before she propped him down onto the chair. "You just stay right there and I'll get everything fresh and clean for you." Katherine smiled and went over to his bed, pulling the covers and sheets from the mattress before taking them off with her down to the laundry as though she would ever attempt to clean them. She then went off and grabbed some new bedding and went back into the room and started the work of putting his bed back together. She wondered why he needed such a big bed, but knew it had something to do with his persistent need to have a sexual relationship with every pussy that walked his way and she rolled her eyes at him while she had her back to him. She made sure that it was as neat as possible while still alluding to the human flaw of imperfections, but she went as far as to plump his pillow and even went and grabbed a pair of pajama bottoms for him from his drawer for him to change into. "Do you need help with this or are you okay to change on your own?" She set the pajama bottoms on the bed and gathered up the bloody washcloth and the now empty blood bags. "I better throw these out. I'll give you some privacy, but I'll be back to check up on you. Do you need anything else while I'm downstairs? Another blood bag maybe? Or something else to drink?" She smiled lovingly at him, letting her eyes tenderly grace his features as she pretending to be his Elena.

**DAMON'S POV –**

Damon couldn't explain it, but he already felt better. There was something so nurturing and caring about Elena, and it was something that Katherine would never possess. Maybe that was why he had fallen for Elena so hard. Not only did she look like the woman he once loved more than life itself, but she obtained all the good qualities that Katherine didn't. Katherine would never be as attentive as Elena was being right now as she cleaned his cuts, and babied him. She such a kindness in her eye and he actually felt like he meant something to someone. He never really had that, especially once he became a vampire. In his human life Katherine made him feel like he was the only one and that Stefan was just a side toy, one she was stringing along for amusement. She always said it would only be the two of them, but she had lied. He could never see Elena lying, at least not about something like that. He put down his fourth blood bag on his nightstand as Elena insisted she change the sheets. "Um…alright, that would probably be nice," Damon commented, given the fact his own blood now decorated his usually clean bedding. He wrapped his arm around her, finding it cute how much she seemed to struggle to get him from the bed. He had to do most of the work, and it still hurt him even though his wounds were healing. It would take a while for him to return to his normal state—he figured. He plopped down into the chair on the other side of the room, thanking her sweetly before he watched her strip his bed of the soiled sheets.

Then she disappeared momentarily, returning with a new bed spread. He wasn't sure how she knew, but she even brought up a set that was his instead of Stefan's. "Thank you so much Elena, you don't know how much this means to me," he said softly as she finished up his bed and put out a pair of pajama bottoms for him. He wouldn't mind letting her help him change, but he wouldn't be able to let her with a clear conscience. He knew that Elena was Stefan's and he didn't want to disrespect his brother like that…of course…he didn't know how long he would be able to keep that up and fight his feelings for her. "No, I've got it…thank you," he told her as he slowly got up from the chair and limped over to the bed. "Maybe a scotch?" He suggested when she asked if he needed anything else. When she left, he got out of his blood clothes, and stepped into the pants before he laid back in his clean bed. She truly was an angel. He wanted someone that perfect for himself, but he knew he'd never find it because he didn't deserve it. She came back upstairs a few minutes later, slipping in the room as she handed him his drink. He downed the entire thing, setting the empty glass on his nightstand as he patted the space beside him in the bed. "Come sit with me," he suggested, because he wanted to tell her everything that was on his mind. He knew he was probably just opening himself up to disappointment, but he couldn't help it. He had to tell her how he felt.

When she sat down beside him, he turned to his side; his crystalline optics connecting with hers. "Elena you mean so much to me. Thank you so much for dropping everything and coming over here," he whispered. "Katherine drives me nuts." He tried to admit that as quietly as possible in case the bitch was listening in to their conversation. "I still care about her, and she just treats me like shit. It hurts me, but…" he sighed. He was NEVER this open, ever. Not even with Elena, but he had a near death experience so he tried to pass this moment off as just an aftershock of the event. He certainly wouldn't be like this come tomorrow. "I don't know why I always fall in love with women who will never love me," he said, his gaze intensifying as he looked into her eyes. "First Katherine…and now, you; maybe I should give up on the true love front," he chuckled dryly. "I tried it twice and got burned both times. Feeding, fucking, and then killing seems like the much easier way then actually investing feelings in someone. I don't say this to make you feel guilty, Elena. I know you're Stefan's. I just wished it would've worked out for me at least once. The feeling of actually being loved in return is probably a beautiful thing…but I'll never know…" he trailed off, looking away from her.

**KATHERINE'S POV –**

Elena probably would have denied him the scotch, but Katherine couldn't see the harm in it so she brought him a glass and a good sized glass at that, filled nearly to the brim. When she handed it to him, he didn't waste any time whatsoever chugging it down and Katherine pursed her thin lips and made a little sigh. "You need to take it easy with that Damon," she urged quietly, taking a seat next to him as he prompted her to. He was such a schmuck. Even after all this time he couldn't tell the difference and here Katherine thought her smell was slightly different from Elena's, but whatever, it would be his fault for not noticing and she had to consciously force a smile not to appear on her lips. Her tongue slipped out of her mouth to wet her lips as he started talking, her mind completely unattached to the words that were coming out of his mouth because piercing images were forming in her mind. She wanted to fuck him senseless. Now that he was a vampire his body could do things he couldn't while he was human and Katherine wanted to explore that with him, but she couldn't, at least, not now. Right now, she was Elena and she had to be the breakable one which irritated her to no end. All Katherine wanted to do was take control of Damon's body and force her body into pleasure while riding his dick to kingdom come, but oh no, she had to take this innocently and it was so much harder to plot in her head. Katherine didn't do sweet and loving, she needed to be rough and in control and she supposed it was good that Damon had never had Elena's twat in his mouth or else Katherine's little plot would have been ruined.

She smiled softly and ever so innocently as he spoke, her eyes tainted with joy as he spoke about his lasting feelings for her. 'That's right baby, you still want me.' She thought, letting some sadness touch her eyes as his tone got depressing and he started to bitch and moan like a fucking pussy. She was so tempted to tell him to grow up and let his testicles drop. 'I bet his dick can't get hard anymore because he isn't man enough to know how to use it.' She almost felt for him as he looked away from her, his voice trailing off and for a moment she didn't know what to do. Her instincts told her to laugh at him and walk out of the door, but the better damage would be done making him believe that Elena loved him and she instantly had her way in. "Damon…" Katherine reached out for his hand, taking it in both of hers to smooth over the flesh of his hands. His hand was still cold to the touch, but slowly getting warmer as his body fought to heal him. She stroked the back of his hand with the pads of her thumbs as she looked down at them, letting tears come to her eyes before she allowed them to fall down onto her cheeks. "But I do…" Her bottom lip quivered as her gaze went back up to Damon's crystal hues. "I do love you... I do and I don't know why you can't see it."

She swallowed hard, lifting the back of her hand to her cheek as she sniffled, her eyes looking up to the ceiling to try and stop the tears that she could have ended with the blink of an eye. "Please don't say that." Katherine leaned forward, getting close to his face, one of her hands going to cup his cheek in her palm. "You are such a good man and you deserve so much more than you give yourself credit for." She nodded her head, tears trickling down her cheeks and onto his shoulder, a small sob escaping her. She could tell her act was succeeding by the way he looked at her and saw those tears and she knew he would do anything to get rid of them. "I want to..." she hesitated, wiping at her eyes, letting her tears stop for the moment. "I want to try something." Her sculpted eyebrows furrowed together as she let her head slowly get closer and closer to his, her lips drawing to his. Katherine was playing on the kiss that he and Elena had shared earlier and there was no doubt in her mind that he would kiss her back. She got so close to his lips that she could feel his breath on her petals and there she hesitated for a moment, her eyelids closed tight, concealing her in darkness. She waited there another several moment before she let her lips draw to his like a magnet to a refrigerator door. It was innocent enough, she didn't really move her lips just because she wanted to feel his lips on hers and after a while she pulled back ever so slightly. "Damon," she whispered, opened up her eyelids, "Tonight, it is only you and me."

Her lips molded to his again as she climbed over the top of him, not forgetting about his wound because she made good and well to avoid it. Her hands explore the sides of his face and went through his dark hair as her petals moved over his and she opened her mouth up for his tongue. She moaned lightly as his tongue went to hers, slipping into her warm cavern only to dance in her mouth. She kissed him lovingly until she thought that it was time for Elena's lungs to begin to burn with oxygen and then she pulled away from him a little, letting her dark hues catch his. "Please, don't deny me this." She begged, her voice a little quiet and covered in want as she lifted herself up over him. She made sure to straddle his hips as she reached for her shirt, pulling it up and over her head before tossing it to the side revealing her black bra underneath. She went back down to his lips, hardly standing the separation as she descended down to his jaw line, down to his neck, and then to his chest where her loving lips pressed to his tender flesh before going down further. She gently tugged at the waistband of the bottoms she had given him earlier and she pulled them down, careful to not bother the wound she had given to him before. She discarded the material before her eyes drifted to his healing thigh. With a gentle touch, she ran her fingertips along the outsides of the wound with a feather light touch. She then bent her head down to press her lips to where her fingertips had been. "A kiss can heal anything." She smiled, carefully getting off of him so she could get out of her jeans, revealing a pair of lacey boy shorts. She let the apples of her cheeks tint a little, one of her arms crossing over her chest to try and show that she was a bit nervous, her bottom lip going into her mouth as she felt his eyes examine her.

"Sorry, I'm a little nervous." She laughed softly before going back to the edge of the bed, sitting there like she had done before because she was seeking for his permission. "I want to love you Damon…" Katherine dropped her head closer to his, letting her breath hit his lips to make him fall deeper into her trap. "I do." She whispered for only him to hear. She could feel him give into her then so she sealed her decision with a kiss that could have equaled any that he had given her when he was human. With a careful hand she reached behind her back and unlatched her bra, letting it slide down her arms and to the floor before she got to her feet again so she could slide the panties down her slender legs. She could feel her nipples hardening against the exposure to the air and to the heat of his body as she climbed back onto the bed, her hands travelling down his chest and to his boxers. She could see his erection beating hard against the material and she smiled against his lower abdomen as she worked at getting them off of him until they were both absolutely naked. She knew that she needed to be careful because of his thigh so she straddled his hips, keeping herself above his dick, her slick wetness dripping down onto his head as she bent her head to kiss him. "I love you." She mumbled against his lips, reaching down between their bodies to take hold of his cock as she lowered herself down over him. A whimper escaped her as she rubbed his engorged head against her nether lips, making his dick good and wet before she put him at her entrance. She lowered herself over him, letting her cunt stretch to take him in, her walls clenching down around him as she settled down on him completely with a moan. Her chest rose and fell steadily as she just sat there, adjusting to him, loving the feel of him before she decided to take a good, long look at him before she slowly began to rock her hips into him, moving her body back and forth deliciously.

**DAMON'S POV –**

Damon knew that in the morning he would rather pretend that this conversation didn't take place. He didn't like exposing his emotions, and it didn't make a damn bit of difference that he was spewing his cathartic feelings to Elena, either. At the end of the day she was a woman, another woman that rejected the love he was trying to offer and he didn't know why he was putting it all out on the table for her again just to have it thrust back in his face. It wasn't a big secret that she loved Stefan more, and he understood why. That's why he couldn't be mad anymore, and that was also why in the morning he was going to find a way to go after his little brother because he didn't want him in Klaus' clutches. How does he come to Mystic Falls and beg the do-gooder to open a vein on girl and he refuse so persistently, but then some big bad original whom he couldn't stand comes along and now he's a ripper again. In a way it pissed Damon off and he felt betrayed by his little brother too, his rescue mission would also be to shell out a bit of revenge because he couldn't stand the fact that he was off on romp without him. Elena was slowly softening him, and he hated it and loved it at the same time. He loved it because he missed being a human more than anything else in the world, but he hated it because it made him weaker and give him a target of vulnerability on his back that exclaimed 'aim here to fuck me up.' He kind of smiled at Elena's warning; find it rather cute that she treated him like he was a fragile human like her.

His liver was invincible so he treated it as such; one of the few perks of being the living dead. When she said his name his crystal gaze moved to meet hers, her warm skin now on his hand as she held it. He put down the empty glass on the nightstand, turning his full attention to the beauty before him. He almost didn't know what to say. He felt as though he was dreaming…or dying. Maybe the cure wasn't working after all, because in the real world Elena Gilbert wouldn't have been confessing her love for him as tears streamed down her cheeks. His eyes grew sorrowful then, because he had upset her and he hadn't meant to. His head naturally leaned into her hand as palm touched his cheek and he listened to her beautiful words. They were everything he had always wanted to hear, but he realized in that moment how badly he had wanted to hear them from her all this time. Now it was happening. Stefan was slowly fading from his mind, his own wants and desires moving to the surface as he gazed into her coffee ground pools. He didn't move when she said she wanted to try something, he stayed perfectly still…watching as she inched closer and closer to him. His eyes fell shut and he could feel her warm breath against his parted lips. She sat there what seemed like hours before she finally closed the distance. Her smooth petals melted into his and he relished in the warmth that flooded through his body at the innocent gesture, only this time he was more coherent and able to enjoy it since he wasn't on his deathbed.

She pulled away too soon, his eyes opening up to meet hers as she whispered more words he could've sworn were coming out of one of his own fantasies. Before Damon could reply her lips were molding into his again and she was straddling him, careful to avoid the wound that Katherine had left on his thigh. His arms moved up around her, settling gently against the curves of her waist as her hands explored his face before her slender fingers ran through his hair. "Mmmm," he hummed into the kiss, and the moment her lips gave way he slipped his tongue in her moist mouth. He pressed his wet muscle to hers, inviting it into a warm dance as her kissed her tenderly—lovingly like he had always wanted to do. The world was disappearing right now and it was leaving only him and her in it, and he loved it more than anything he had ever experienced in his 170 years on the earth. When she broke away for air his gaze went straight for hers, and he watched in awe—his mouth slightly agape—as she peeled the shirt from her body. Stefan who? He might…_might_ be sorry for this later but right now he only wanted Elena, and Stefan and his feelings were the furthest thing from his mind. "Elena," Damon murmured quietly, drinking in her perfect frame as she came back down to him. His hand cradled her head, his fingers running through her silky locks as their mouths fused as one again. A low rumble of approval escaped deep from his chest as she began peppering kisses down his jaw and neck, descending down his abdomen as he watched her.

She was so gentle and loving he almost couldn't handle it. He shivered as her fingertips traced the healing edges of his wound before her lips went there, melting into his leg. A woman had never had this effect on him, but he wasn't surprised that Elena was bringing this side of him out. Not even Katherine had elicited these emotions from him when he was a human. "I believe that now," he whispered as she got off of him and guided her jeans off her legs. Damon couldn't help himself as his gaze shifted to her shapely legs and the curve of her ass in her cute panties. He smiled softly at her, his eyes softening. "Me too," he admitted, feeling like a teenager again as she got back on his bed and drew near to him. "I want you to, Elena…believe me…I do," he mirrored her words, his lips colliding with hers passionately. His tongue massaged hers, and he could feel her arms tangling with her bra and when she broke for air his glacier optics fused with her nude breasts unable to stop himself. He licked his lips, watching in a trance as she got off him and guided her panties down her legs—revealing her innocent womanhood. His cock was beating to life beneath the cotton of his boxers, wanting to take her sweetly and tenderly like he had always envisioned doing. Before he knew it she was back beside him again; her hands diligently working his boxers until they were off of him. When Elena straddled him again his hands moved to her hips, and he could feel her moisture actually dripping on to his skin.

If that wasn't enough to get a man going, he didn't know what would. She was completely saturated for him, and he loved that he managed to have the effect on her and she actually didn't care if she showed it now. Damon wasn't sure how long this would last, so he was going to seize this moment. For all he knew he'd wake up and it would all just be a dream. That would devastate him, and that's why he was going to remember this for the rest of his life. His lips met hers again before she whispered more affectionate confessions against his lips. "I love you too," he told her, a soft moan escaping his lips as her hand curled around his thick length and rubbed it against her drenched folds. "My god Elena," Damon murmured in a husky tone. "Is this really happening?" He asked her as he looked into her eyes. But then he felt her sink on to his throbbing erection and he felt like he about died from the pleasure, so he knew this was really taking place. "You feel so good," he mumbled, pants and groans leaving his lips as she began to ride his dick like it was made for her—and Damon liked to believe it was. "Elena," Damon breathed, causing her to stop for a moment as he gently rolled her over so she was now laying on his bed. "I've always wanted our first time to be memorable…I don't want you doing all the work, though you're beautiful doing it," he smiled tenderly, his lips brushing against hers as he began to move inside of her slowly.

He reveled in the sensations of her muscles stretching over him each time he'd slip back into her, her slick walls making it nearly effortless as she coated his manhood in her juices each time. His lips melted into her neck, moving down her chest as his tongue gently slipped between his lips lapping at her pink nipple until it grew taut beneath his taste buds. He loved her little breathy noises, and it urged him to quicken his pace slightly as his hand moved between their moving bodies. His thumb brushed against her clit, coaxing blood to rush there as her swirled around it. It hardened underneath his touch as he increased the pressure, flicking it gently as he thrust inside of her tight walls. "I love your sounds, so sexy," he mumbled against her parted lips, silencing her as he slipped his wet muscle inside her moist mouth. This was too much for him to bare and he never wanted it to end. He'd tend to her the entire night; he didn't care how tired or sore he was. Elena Gilbert was beneath him, and he loved her more than anything and he wanted to show that to her. Nothing was going to stop him, not even thoughts of rescuing his brother.

**KATHERINE'S POV –**

Katherine had to admit that it irked her hearing him call her Elena. She would have rather heard her name on Damon's lips which was beyond her, but she loved a man's groans with her name written all over them. However, just because she wanted that didn't mean she couldn't find her pleasure somewhere else as in looking back on this moment when she left with such glee that she wouldn't be able to hold back her pleasure. The idea of him finding his precious Elena in the cellar was too good and she wished desperately she could catch it on camera or see it for herself, but she needed to be far enough away from him. She had every intention of fucking him until the morning hours, sleeping with him just a little, and then leaving before he could wake up and when he went to get his breakfast, his little surprise would be waiting for him. She knew it would ruin him because he was expecting something he shouldn't have ever wanted. It was so blatantly obvious that she was not Elena, but the lust was preventing Damon from thinking straight. Only Elena's pussy was on his mind and Katherine was sure her body was identical to Elena's, but Katherine knew how to move herself to give a man exactly as he wanted. She wasn't innocent in this area at all because she knew what sex could get her and she used it like currency, passing her body from dick to dick unable to get sore, but completely able to get bored. She needed her games to keep entertained which was why Katherine had started fucking Stefan when the brothers were human. It was that pleasure she got from knowing what it would do to them as brothers and as people because if they were all talking strictly the truth, both Salvatore brothers would have to admit that they would not be who they were today without Katherine's gentle push.

When he said Elena's name again, she felt like slapping him so she paused, contemplating it, but then he flipped them over and she found herself on her back. 'Fucking missionary style… so boring,' she thought, pursing her lips a little as she reached up with her hands, smoothing them up his sculpted arms until she could wrap them behind his neck. Katherine had to remind herself that Elena was innocent, that Elena would gladly take being loved rather than having any control so she let Damon live out his fantasy for the fact that it would pain him even more. His future pain was something that Katherine heartily looked forward to because Damon was ruled by his heart even if he didn't realize it. Damon could be affected by the smallest of things because he was a sensitive man and that was why it was so much more fun toying with his mind than it had ever been with Stefan. Katherine opened up her legs for him, letting him slip even further into her swollen pussy as he moved within her, delving into her warm cavern with such meaningful thrusts that she wanted to puke. Katherine loved fast, sharp thrusts that could jolt her body into heaven and this loving shit made her sick to her stomach, but she had to force herself to enjoy it for the sake of pulling off her façade.

The one thing she found pleasure in was the size of his dick. He was deliciously big and sinfully hard and she couldn't help letting out several euphoric moans as he slid into her body, slamming his engorged head into the spongy center of her cunt. She had definitely missed his cock and that was probably about the only thing that she had missed about him. He was just the perfect size for her; stretching her enough to make her feel the sting of his intrusion, but not enough to hide the bliss that he was obviously forcing throughout her body. She bit down on her bottom lip as she clung to him, bending both of her legs at the knee so that she could tighten her grip on his hips, almost trying to slow him down in a way as though the tension in her body was too much for her to handle. "Oh Damon, please." She murmured, her back arching up into him as she began to lift her hips up into him, using her feet as leverage to meet his ardent thrusts. She wanted her release, but she wanted his too. She wanted him to shoot his milky seed into her body so she could go around carrying a part of him with her; she knew that that reality alone would hurt him more. Katherine was far too evil to get her orgasm out of sex alone, but the idea of seeing him again after this was enough to have her whimpering underneath his frame.

Her moans became breathier as her lower abdomen tensed uncomfortably, her legs tightening around him, her nails digging into his back as softly as she could make it, as softly as a vampire could allow. She knew she wasn't breaking skin, but she was close. Katherine pushed away those overcoming feelings, her fingers dragging down his back as she lifted her lips to his ear, "Cum with me." She purred, letting her head hit back against the pillow before she brought his head down to meet her lips. She kissed him with a fierce fervor that definitely was walking a thin line where Elena was concerned. She parted her lips to let his tongue into her mouth and only then did she let him claim her wet muscle. It was only then that she let herself succumb to her pleasure, her feminine walls spasming around his dick. Her pussy tightened around him, milking him to his own release. Her wet muscles tightened around him as his cock began to twitch inside of her hallows, his cum shooting out into the back of her chasm. This had to be one of her favorite parts and as she looked up into his blue eyes only to switch their positions again. She rolled him over in the midst of their passion, making sure their contact didn't break, her legs falling around his as she kissed his chest. "I love you Damon Salvatore." She muttered, making sure she dealt him one last blow before she pretended to drift off to sleep.

Katherine had been out of Mystical Falls for two weeks, letting the burn of Damon's miscalculation seep into his heart until he was seething with it. She had even left in Elena's clothing, leaving Elena down in the cellar in her underwear and even with Katherine's clothes so that Damon would know exactly what had happened. And over the last few weeks she had been itching to get back to him to receive the brunt of his anger, to get exactly what he wanted to dish out to her and it was exactly that need that had driven her back to the boarding house, back to where she knew Damon would be except Damon was nowhere to be found. She grumbled, saddened that she was going to have to wait for him to get home, but it was just another surprise waiting for him when he got back. She settled into the den, pouring herself a thick scotch, before sitting herself down onto the couch, bringing up her legs so that she could rest up against the back of it. "Hurry up Damon, it's rude to keep a girl waiting."


	2. Invasion

Sorry about the lack of updates. Joy and I have been busy, but we really appreciate those who are reading our stories. We especially love the two of you who have given us reviews! They put a smile to our faces. We hoped that people would love reading our stuff as much as we like writing it. Please spread the news about us! We would love to have new readers, and we plan on writing more :] Thanks again! (We again apologize for the errors. It's old writing and we don't review it, we just collect it and slap it up here so you guys can get to reading it.)

~ Yoshi

**DAMON'S POV -**

When Damon opened his eyes the next morning his mind wandered back to the night before, absentmindedly wondering if it was a dream after all. He turned to his side, noticing that he was all alone in bed with no one to hold but a pillow but he could still smell her soft scent on his pillows. He threw back the covers, revealing his naked body and his morning wood as he let out a groan; his hand rubbing the injury that had been there the day before where Katherine had dealt him a harsh wound. "It must've happened," he murmured under his breath, getting up and starting a new day. He couldn't help but wonder if Elena regretted what they did the night before. After all, he had just gotten bit by a werewolf and for all he knew it was pity sex; her boyfriend had just left town to be with Klaus, she wouldn't have fallen out of love with Stefan that fast, would she? She had said that she loved him though, and that hung in the balance as he got to the bathroom; showering off the remains of his near death yesterday before he dressed in some tight black jeans and a black cotton t-shirt. Then he headed downstairs, cell phone in hand as he dialed Elena's number. It rang twice before he heard it echo. His eyes shifted to the basement door, his brow raising in curiosity as he swung open the door. Grunts and groans echoed in his ear, the faint sound of a heartbeat echoing in his ear as he ran downstairs, pocketing his phone when he reached the last cell to find Elena tied to a chair in just her bra and panties.

Katherine's clothes were scattered around her and in that moment he knew what happened, he realized that he had been played for a fool by the biggest bitch of all. His jaw locked in anger, but he couldn't react to it, not yet. Elena was in trouble and had been tied here all night and she needed help. "Elena!" Damon exclaimed, moving to her as he unbound the ropes that had her hands and ankles tied to the metal chair. "Elena, are you okay?" He asked her in a concerned tone. Tears began to fall from her chocolate orbs as she leaned into him like a crumbling child. His arms wrapped around her, lifting her into his arms as he took her upstairs, letting her shower and change into some of his clothes before he made sure she got home safely. He decided not to tell her what Katherine did to him because he didn't want to make things more strained between the two of them then they already were. Him on the other hand was stewing with the betrayal that Katherine had left him with, probably with a smile on her face, and he was left to deal with the aftermath. He swore if he ever saw that bitch again he'd kill her, but the sad thing was Damon had promised himself that before and never made good on his word. It was a couple of weeks later that he was heading home after dropping Elena off once having lunch with her. They had been doing more research on Klaus and Stefan and found traces of them wandering of the east coast killing people.

They were trying to come up with another plan of action, but failing miserably because she wanted to be reckless, and Damon—well he didn't. He cared for her life too much to bargain with it. He walked into the front door, a familiar and unwelcomed scent falling in the crevice of his nostrils as he scrunched up his face in disgust and anger. He wasted no time getting to where she was because he was not going to let her stay there. His vicious oceanic hues threw daggers at her when he reached the doorway, seeing her cuddled up on his leather sofa with a glass of scotch in hand. In seconds he was standing in front of her, his hand gripping around the one that held her drink as he squeezed; forcing the glass to crush in her hand and pierce her skin in every direction. He watched the pain reflect in her eyes, a nasty smile spreading across his lips as his manic side flashed in his azure oceans. Damon's hand wrapped around her throat, lifting her up in the air as he catapulted her into a wall, meeting her before she could stand as he pinned her to a wall. "You're not welcome here, Katherine. You're lucky I'm not killing you right now…although…" he seethed, his attention flickering to the table to his side, "it might not be a bad idea," he mused, breaking off one of the legs as he shoved it deep into her chest. He purposely missed her heart, but knew it was close enough that she could probably feel the splinters raking against her thriving organ with every breath that she would inhale. "I'll never be able to return the amount of pain you caused me with that sickening act. You're the devil," he growled at her, shoving her to the floor as he stepped away from her. "Get out of my house."

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

There was something about a good agonizing wait that had Katherine frothing at the lips. She loved torturing people and often times the best torture was playing a disappearing act after having done something absolutely devious to let the pain simmer to a boil. Katherine was evil down to her core, but Damon wasn't her only toy and he didn't deserve to have all of her attention, after all, there were other fish in the sea. She thought that a week in Las Vegas would do her good so, after leaving Damon alone in bed, she ran off and booked a flight to the party city. Truth was, she didn't really want to leave, but she knew that if she didn't, she'd be in for hell with Damon. It wasn't that she was scared of him, on the contrary, she thought he was a good little pussy that she could kill any moment that she wanted to. No, she wanted to see his face when he found Elena bound to a chair in her underwear, Katherine's clothes scattered around her like some kind of offering. She just wanted to see his face, see the anger in his eyes… oh how delicious that would have been. Thinking about it alone had her licking her lips in anticipation for the moment that she would come face to face with him again. The anticipation was so bad that she felt that it was killing her and Katherine rarely had that reaction to time. Being a vampire offered her a luxury that not many had and only few had found the ability to appreciate—time. She had all of the time in the world to do whatever the hell she wanted and when someone had all of that future to spend; waiting didn't seem like such a task.

Still, she was eager to get back, eager enough that her foot was bouncing on the flight back to the little city that had somehow become a monumental place for her. Mystic Falls held something special for her. It was where she had met the man she loved, or so she thought she loved and she wanted his attention, but the stupid fuck had to go and get himself attached to Klaus and there was no way in hell that Katherine was ever going to go near that original. It would have been as though she was asking for a death sentence so, for the meantime, she was left with the Salvatore that would always be the sloppy seconds that no one ever wanted and Katherine would spend the rest of her life slamming that knowledge into his face. Damon wasn't wanted, he never would be. All he was good for was a laugh and that was what she was in search of now. Once she had landed and gotten herself back into the city, her first stop was to grab a meal and, as luck had it, she ran into one of Elena's friends on the way to the Salvatore house and she sucked her blood dry until she was dead on the ground. Katherine clapped her hands together in glee as she skipped along until she got herself to the Salvatore house. She could tell several yards back that no one was inside so she welcomed herself in. Humming to herself, she danced in the hallway all the way down to the den where she knew Damon kept the good liquor. "Oh the choices, the choices… eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a Damon by the throat, if he hollers stab him through eeny, meeny, miny moe! Scotch it is!"

Katherine reached for the bottle and then for a crystal glass before pouring herself a full glass of scotch. She brought the bottle with her to the leather couch, setting it on stand next to the couch as she sipped at her scotch. With three-fourths of the scotch down her throat, she caught the scent of Damon and she waited until she could hear his footsteps. She heard him walk through the front door and then he stopped for a moment and within the next moment he was standing in front of her, his hand covering her own hand that was holding onto the glass. She knew what was coming before he could even deal the cards so she let him get away with a few things, just a few. "You should never keep a lady waiting, it's rude." She pouted her lips and tossed her hair a little with a sweet smile, acting like Elena. Under the pressure of his hand, the glass broke, shattering into her flesh in all different directions, but he would have to do far worse than that to make her flinch. "Can't you do better than that?" His hand wrapped around her throat, lifting her into the air, a smile never leaving her lips. He tossed her backwards, her body slamming against the wall, his own body meeting her there a second later. "Hmm, this is hot," she purred, leaning her head forward, flicking her tongue at his bottom lips with an amused giggle. "I think someone grew some balls while I was gone!" She watched him tip over the table and she watched him break off a leg and stab it right into her chest beside her heart. The pain was just about unbearable, but this wasn't the first time that she had been stabbed in the chest so near to her heart. She could feel the wood up against her life muscle and she wasn't happy with him and the moment he let go of her, he had made his error.

She grabbed onto the table leg and pulled it from her chest, blood oozed for a few seconds until her body began to heal and she was on him like a cheetah. She tossed the table leg up into the air, but before it could even hit the floor, she had her hand against the side of his face, bending his body awkwardly to the side so that his head could meet the metal of her knee with a crippling crack. His body crumpled onto the floor as she reached out to grab the table leg from the air, bringing it down with uncanny force until it seared into Damon's chest exactly where he had just punctured her, but even closer to his heart. His pained voice echoed off of the walls and Katherine smiled in delight. "Catch a Damon by the throat, if he hollers stab him through!" She didn't take the time to watch the pain cross his features, her lightning speed took her to the fire pokers and she came back at him, digging all four of the pokers into his belly in one dive. She then knelt down at his side, shaking her head. "You'll never learn. I really don't care what you want Damon, I'm not leaving. Actually, I thought Stefan's bedroom would be a nice place to sleep for the next century or so… you should be a good boy so momma doesn't have to kill you." Katherine leaned down and pressed a hard kiss to his lips before bouncing up to her feet, picking the glass out of her hand with a sigh, "Why did you have to go and waste perfectly good scotch?"

**DAMON'S POV -**

The fact that she was still trying to act like Elena set his blood to a steady boil, only making him hate her more. Why did she had to do this? Why did she have to be such a cold hearted bitch? He had adored her once, worshiped the ground she walked on even, but now he just look at her and felt disgust and repulsion. Katherine hadn't done one nice thing for him since her return to Mystic Falls. She lied about being the tomb, she lied about loving him, and sure—she spared his life after the wolf bite, but probably only because Stefan asked her to. She'd do anything for his brother because it was him that she loved. However anything kind on her part by choice had not existed and he truly loathed her. She was more ruthless than he would ever be, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't fight her diabolical manic ways. He could never get one step ahead of her, and that bothered him because he felt inferior to her and Damon hated that feeling. Elena had softened him, but he was quickly hardening again, just so he could protect himself from the queen of cunts. Watching her fly through the air was only beginning to make him feel better, but she just continued to be manipulative, making bile rise in his throat. Once he had done his handy work with the table leg, he turned away from her, just hoping she'd get the hell out of his face so he could have a drink. It was bad enough she took a moment away from him that he had always fantasized sharing with Elena, but she cheapened it, lessening its worth for him.

On top of that, after comforting Elena a couple of weeks ago she had made it perfectly clear that the kiss was simply because she thought he was going to die and she wanted to give him what she knew he wanted before he went. It was a pity kiss, it meant absolutely nothing, and her heart belonged to Stefan and he knew then it would never be his so he had decided to quit trying. The only thing he was going to do was attempt to find his brother and get him back from Klaus before the stupid dickhead "ruined" him. That's the word Elena had used. He didn't think him becoming a "monster"—another word Elena used—would be so bad. Stefan was never interesting nibbling on bunnies, and in Damon's opinion it was about time he gave into his true self. He also knew that Elena wouldn't like that side of Stefan, and maybe subconsciously that's why he wanted his brother to fall off the proverbial wagon, as it were; so she would be forced to choose Damon. That wasn't love either, but he just wanted to block out these thoughts and he couldn't really do that with Katherine bugging him which is why he let her know she wasn't welcome. He knew the moment he turned his back it was a bad idea, and she only proved his thought accurate as she slammed his head into her steel knee dropping him to the floor like a fly. The table leg was quickly driven into his chest; right next the muscle of his heart like he had done her. He let out a groan through gritted teeth, his anger burning in his crystal gaze as he looked up in her eyes. There was no use fighting Katherine.

Even his determination wasn't going to beat her in a battle right now so he knew it was pointless to try. He thought that hit would've been enough to appease her, but he guessed he was just kidding himself, because in a flash she had driven the five fire place pokers into his gut. His blood spilled out on to the floor, and even though his immortal body was trying to heal, it couldn't with all the objects piercing him all over. With the amount of blood he was losing he already felt weak and he would have to drink after this, and not just a heavy scotch or whiskey. He glowered at her remark, revolted by her kiss when her petals landed roughly against his. He tried to jerk away from her, squirming in protest before she got to her feet. His hand wrapped around the wood first, pulling it out of his chest with a throaty groan before he picked out the pokers that skewed his body one by one; the clattering of the metal hitting the floor as he threw them. Damon's hand supported his abdomen as he struggled to get to his feet, most of his blood on the floor in large mixing puddles as he looked over at Katherine. She wasn't even worth the hassle. It would just lead to more fighting and more injuries on his end. She was incorrigible, and trying to make her otherwise would be his mistake. "Whatever Katherine, take up home in Stefan's room; see if I give a shit," he muttered dryly as he brushed past her.

"I need to replenish what's now on the floor," he grumbled, escaping down to the basement. If she was going to stay, she was going to stay, there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. He fixed himself up and a few weeks passed. He hated to say it, but having some company in the house, even if it was unwanted at times was oddly nice at times—or at least entertaining. Sometimes they'd go treat themselves to a live meal, driving several towns away just so they could have a decent hunt. Damon wasn't really trying the wholesome act anymore, although it was obvious that remaining effects of Elena in his life had lasted but he wasn't really complaining. She had made him better in some ways, though other vampires might've considered them weaknesses. He avoided her when he could, helping during other times in search of Stefan. Most things led to dead ends, or he'd find Stefan and have quick interactions with him; just long enough to realize he was losing himself to the darkness of being a Ripper again. Then he'd return to Katherine, asking her to help but she'd always refuse and they'd bicker and spat, sometimes kick the shit out of each other and then do it all over again. It got to the point that Damon started to feel like she was hiding something. After all, she claimed she was there to help get Stefan back but every time he'd leave on trips to follow leads—she would never come with him.

"What are you hiding Katherine," Damon hummed to himself as he waltzed into Stefan's old room. It now smelled like Katherine, her subtle touches of decoration laced in the antique aura of the room. A stack of leather bound journals rested on the desk in the corner, and for a moment Damon assumed she was just snooping in some of Stefan's old ones…but then he realized the binding was slightly different than the ones that filled up a bookshelf in the room. Damon cocked his head to the side curiously, walking over as he picked up the one on top. It looked the newest, and journal entries were scrawled across countless pages in perfect cursive. He settled down on the bed, resting his back against the headboard as he crossed his legs and began to flip through the pages. Katherine was oddly reflective, maybe even sweet in some cases. It made him scoff because he found it to all be bullshit…that was until he reached an entry about a little girl. He was curious instantly, which is precisely what had kept him reading; learning that Katherine had a daughter that was taken from her right after birth because it was conceived out of wedlock. Her mother pried it from her hands, and after consuming vampire blood she killed herself. In the journal she pondered what it would've been like to be a mother, how sometimes she wished she was human again, but what caught Damon's interest the most was the very last page of the journal. _I know how to kill Klaus. _

The sentence changed everything and further confirmed that Katherine was indeed hiding something from him. That's when he realized she was standing in the doorway. He shut the journal nonchalantly, returning it to the pile as he stayed sprawled out on her bed. He folded his arms behind his head, his ocean optics latching on to her frame. "Well I have to give it to you Katherine, it's no Hemmingway but it's certainly better than the mopey brooding thoughts of Stefan. Yours is even entertaining, I laughed," he mused with a scoff. "I mean you're pretty good. The pages actually reflect that you have a soul, it's just a shame I know you otherwise I would've fallen for it. So tell me, how long were you planning on keeping your knowledge of Klaus to yourself?"

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

Contrary to popular belief, Katherine didn't like to be alone; in fact, she hated it. That was why, when she did run off, she always seemed to have people around her. She would find someone that could get her the places that she wanted to go, but that was the key to everything. There was always someone. The only times that she was alone were the times that she was going from place to place mid-travel. She surrounded herself with people unless she was planning something nefarious, but these people had no idea who she was. She gave fake names, most of the time, because when she was travelling, it was never without purpose. She was always tracking Klaus down. She didn't care for running, even though she had gained a reputation for doing so. The truth of the matter was that she firmly believed that keeping enemies closer than her friends was always the wisest option. She wanted to know where Klaus was and be a safe enough distance away to be off his radar. She was quite ingenious. When it came down to following him, she would stop where he stopped, get people to tell her what he wanted, what he was up to so that she could be ahead of him. It was on those travels that she had picked up several key pieces of information and like a puzzle, for decades, she had been piecing everything together. Little by little, she was getting ahead of Klaus and saving her ass while doing so. Her greatest fear was death. It was the reason that she had forced herself to transform so many centuries ago. The best part of it all, other than her survival, was that she could turn off her feelings at the drop of a hate.

That was another thing that she had that many people didn't think she had the capability to possess. And in many ways they were right. The bottom line was that she would always choose her well being over everyone else's survival because, in her opinion, she was the most important. It was why she had made all of the decisions throughout her lifetime. She needed to live, she needed to thrive, she needed to conquer until there was nothing else left for her to do. Her life wouldn't be without purpose, but even though she knew how to get rid of Klaus, she wasn't about to go and do it. It was risky, it required stealing from Klaus that which he held most important to him. It wasn't going to be easy and she sure as hell wouldn't be the one to do it. No, she would get a guinea pig… probably more than just one, but she would make an attempt when the time was right. So she watched in blissful contentment as Damon and Elena made their efforts to try and save Stefan; Elena for love and Damon for obligation. Katherine, on the other hand, sat back and relaxed and laughed because they could go after Stefan as many times as they wanted to, but they would never be able to save him. Stefan belonged to Klaus, the only way to get him back was to get rid of the vampire that had control over him. It was a simple fact really and the two dolts were stupid not to realize it themselves, but Katherine kept quiet. She did what she did best, she made Damon angry as fuck and fought with him every time he got back from one of his little rescue missions. And she loved it.

She was convinced that there was nothing in the world that she did better than make his life miserable and she was trying to, but it was because he left her no choice. He was just so damn lovesick after a girl who would never love him, he deserved better. She preferred Damon the way he was before he had returned to Mystic Falls because he was fun then and she wanted fun and she was intent on getting him back to that place. She saw that vampire in him when they went off and hunted together. She loved it. She loved fighting with him too and messing up the house only to make him clean it up later. It was all a game to her, but there were things that she liked to, like pretend to be Elena around town so she could do whatever the hell she pleased. However, whenever they got physical with one another, she neglected to use her full strength on him like she had when she had come waltzing back into his life. She only hit him hard enough to end their fights because she was stronger and she could do that and she got bored easily with him. She only liked to fight if that meant she could have rough sex afterwards, but with Damon that was impossible. He was so damn whipped with that girl, but mostly Katherine thought that he was just too angry with her to contemplate having a little fun with her. That was all she wanted when it came to Damon, but he was so damn noble. He was supposed to be the one she could fuck with and Stefan was supposed to be the real deal. She loved him, or at least she was convinced that she did. She thought she felt the same way about him that she felt about the man she created a baby with, but she liked Stefan the way he was when they first met and when he was a Ripper, he wasn't that man. Katherine, though, couldn't do anything about it now when it meant risking her own life… so maybe it wasn't really love, maybe it was just infatuation and jealousy. There was once a time when she had both Salvatore brothers pinning over her and now neither one of them wanted anything to do with her.

With a fresh dose of blood in her system from a sales attendant at the local vintage clothing shop, she made her way back to the house. It wasn't home, nothing was home to her. The house she had grown up in was her home and that place was long gone, she had checked herself. There were certain things about her old life that she wanted back and not being able to have that human experience had jaded Katherine. It was what made her so diabolically wrong. When she walked back into the house, bags on her arms from her shopping, she instantly sensed that something was off. She moved her head from side to side very slowly, her eyes looking around as she cocked her head. She took a deep breath in through her nose and it smelled exactly like Damon, but the most potent scent of him was coming from upstairs to the left, not the right which was the direction of Damon's bedroom. A low growl began to form in the back of her throat as she set down her bags and started to make her way upstairs very silently which meant very quickly. She made it to her bedroom door, which she always kept closed, but was completely ajar. She looked inside, not bothering to hide herself, and there Damon was on her bed with her journals all around him, and one in his hand. She knew which one it was and that if he reached the end, he would know that she had a secret that she wasn't particularly ready to divulge to anyone. It was her leverage and hers alone.

Damon noticed her then and as though he didn't care, he set her journal down, put his hands behind his head, and made fun of her. Like Stefan, those were her inner thoughts and they were precious, they meant something to her. He had invaded her privacy and that would not go without consequence. She was even hurt that he found her words funny when she knew for a fact there was no happy memory inside. All of it was about the troubles of her life, the things she put down there so she could forget, but still have a place to go back to, to remember. In less than a blink of an eye, Katherine was on top of Damon. Straddling his hips, her fingers wrapped around his neck, her words hissing behind clenched teeth, her chocolate eyes as fiery as hell itself. "How dare you," she could feel her upper lip twitch with the anger that she felt, "I have the right mind to kill you Damon Salvatore." And she would too, she knew she should have, but she didn't want to. Killing him wasn't really an option for her, after all, where would the fun be for her if he was no longer around to torture? Instead, she pulled away from him and slapped him across the cheek so hard her handprint was visible upon impact, left behind for a few moments while his body quickly healed him. "YOU CALLOUS SON OF A FUCKING BITCH!" She nearly screamed, climbing off of him. She grabbed her journals, one by one, and neatly lined them back where they had been. "You touch these again and it will be your death sentence." She hissed, turning around to face him. She licked at her lips, crossing her hands in front of her chest. "Or rip off your dick, one of the two. I think the second would be more painful for you. Think about it, a life of eternity without a dick to get up. No woman would ever want to be with you then." One corner of her lips turned up in a half-smile as she thought about it. "Now, you can get out of my room or deal with the consequences. You choose what you want to do because no matter how much you haggle me, I'm not going to tell you anything. You don't deserve it."

**DAMON'S POV -**

He couldn't really feel remorse goading her like he was, because in Damon's mind she deserved far worse for the recent stunt she had pulled. He'd never be able to pay her back for posing as Elena and betraying him in lowest of ways. He had thought after she saved him that maybe, _maybe_ she'd have some redeeming qualities about her, but she was far worse than he would ever be and that's why he had a hard time feeling sorry that not only had he just invaded her privacy; but mocked what he had read inside as well. Her, a mother? That seemed like some sick joke, and if what the pages claimed were really true than the fact that her daughter was dead was really a godsend because who would want to be tied to someone like Katherine for the rest of eternity? He laughed internally, recalling when he was that naïve man who wanted to be with her forever; give her the desires of her heart and more. He had lived to see a smile adorn Katherine's mauve seductive petals, but that had all changed. Now he fantasized about driving a stake through her heart as he fucked her, and her usefulness to him never exceeded her shallow beauty. As far as he was concerned she was just nice to look at but otherwise inadequate and a waste of his time. All her shopping bags seemed to topple to the ground in split seconds, her slender body suddenly straddling him as her slender fingers wrapped around his thick neck. Even though her hand struggled to make it around the girth of his throat, her power kept him held there as he looked up into her eyes.

He was hardly concerned for his health; ever since she had been here this had been a reoccurring theme. They slapped each other around a bit, hardly dealing out the damage both were capable of, and then they'd leave—pretending to be completely put out by the other. His icy oceans latched on to her molten embers, fiery enough to melt the artic. "How could I?" He scoffed, trying to shake his head at her. "What you're the morality police now?" Damon hissed. "Snooping through someone's private things, my god that's a fucking terrible offence, but pretending to be someone else and screwing with their head…that's perfectly kosure," he muttered drying with a roll of her his eyes. If there was something about Katherine that bothered Damon most, it was her shitty double standards. If someone else did it to her, it was terrible, audacious, and against the rules that she claimed ot not like anyway. However let someone do one of these fallacies to her and she was up in arms over it. He flinched at the whack he received across his face, his skin burning in protest when she retracted herself from his body and began to reorganize her journals. "I never really pegged you for the writing type," Damon reasoned as he pushed himself up off the bed, rubbing his cheek where her hand print had disappeared. He chuckled a little at her threats, not really paying any attention to them. What surprised him was her reaction to this.

It was as though she really felt her deepest thoughts were intruded upon and it had bothered her. "Hmm," he shrugged bobbing his head in vacant nod. "Yes, I'm sure the ladies would miss that, but I'd still have them following me around like a lost puppy. I can work magic with this mouth and tongue, but apparently it's been so long you don't remember," he breathed hotly against her lips, "and it's a shame you'll never know again." He pulled away with a smug grin. He knew she would stay true to her word and not tell him anything yet, but that didn't mean he wouldn't get it out of her in other ways. For now that wasn't his main motivation. She knew about Klaus and how to kill him, great. That bought them some amount of time for now. He left the room, hoping she'd assume that was his answer to her question, but the reality it wasn't. He headed downstairs, making his way to the basement before he got two blood bags; fixing them up a spiked drink with vodka in the crimson life force before he drained it into two crystal wine glasses. What Damon hated about Katherine is that it was so obvious she had layers, more than he could've ever realized and he got that by just reading several pages of one single journal. Her human days were tragic to have something so precious to her taken from her arms. She wanted to be a mom, she liked being human, and they took that from her. Klaus took that from her, and he knew then why she was on a mission to kill the asshole original herself and it made him want to help her.

Once he had poured them each a drink he headed back upstairs into her bedroom. "Here," he said, handing her a glass as he gave her a small smile. It was the best apology he could muster, because really he wasn't sorry for what he did, just for how he had made her feel. He didn't want to stoop to her level as tempting as it was for him. He wanted to be better than that for once, even if Katherine assumed that made him weak and less of a man. "I bet you would've been a good mom," Damon finally said softly, his azure oceans capturing hers in a serious gaze as he took a step toward her. "How old were you when you gave birth?" He inquired curiously, "did the father know?" He remembered reading that her mother was completely against it, and Damon couldn't help but wonder why that was. "There's stuff about you Katherine that even I didn't realize, and I always thought I knew you fairly well," he mused, tipping the glass back into his mouth as he downed the little blood concoction he had made. He made his way to the armchair in the corner of Stefan's room that she now occupied, getting comfortable as he looked at the mountain of shopping bags on the floor. "What'd you get? Model for me," he smirked, wiggling his brows as he took another long drink. "I know you like showing off…" he trailed off. Besides, watching her walk around in barely nothing was just of a reward for him.

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

Katherine wasn't a stranger to furry which was exactly what she was feeling. She wanted nothing more than to kill Damon, but that wouldn't satisfy her at all. She needed him alive because he was of better use to her that way. They were two vampires with a common goal and though she wasn't happy with him right now, she knew she would get over it so long as he kept his mouth shut and didn't remind her of this. Once she had settled her journals back into a safe place, tucked away just so, and tilted slightly so she would know if he meddled with them again, she looked over at him. He had infuriated her and she still was washing away the need to rip out his heart or at least do some damage like tear of one of his limbs; she would enjoy that too. "It isn't my fault that you can't tell the damn difference between me and your precious Elena. If you just looked, you would have noticed that my hair was up in a ponytail since I couldn't straighten it. Just those small things would help you, but oh no," she stepped over to him and flicked his forehead, "You have a thick skull where Elena is concerned." Katherine rolled her eyes, walking over to the bed before sitting herself down. She reached down and pulled off one of her high heels and proceeded with the next one before placing them side by side out of her way. "You don't know everything about me Damon though you are so keen on jumping to that conclusion," she commented before he left the room.

Even though her journals were a way of dispelling old memories, she remembered all of them. She knew every word in every page of each journal that she had and she really didn't have that many. There were only three in the course of her entire lifetime that detailed her human experience and one of them contained random drawls over the years that she had to get out. The other three were details of her discoveries over the year on how to go about killing Klaus and other important information that she always kept close to herself. All seven of her journals were important to her and she felt violated which meant that she needed to find another, more efficient way, of carrying around her information and that was when a USB drive crossed her mind. She knew then that she was going to need to translate everything over to digital information and then burn the books and keep the digital copy on her at all times. She sighed a little; it was more hassle than it was worth, at least, in her opinion. Damon always made things so damn complicated and she hated him for it, but it was a fleeting kind of hatred that she could get over rather easily. He was just so annoying. She almost wished that he could be more like Stefan or at least return to the man he was before he got so hung up on Elena. And yet, for the life of her, she couldn't figure out why either boy was after the dull version of herself. Elena was so self-righteous and careless; she didn't think about the consequences of her actions before she went off and did something stupid with the defense that she was protecting someone she loved. She gave caution to the wind and didn't realize that saving one person inevitably ended up hurting several more people she loved in the process. At least if she was going to do the damage she needed to do it right and not be all apologetic about it afterwards.

Katherine could smell the blood that Damon had just opened up from a blood bag and she was thoroughly disgusted. Wasn't he tired of drinking blood out of a fucking cup? She had taken him on enough hunts in the surrounding cities that he should have been off of that binge, but then, as he walked through her door again, she understood. The glass was laced with vodka, rather than the other way around. She could smell the blood and her mouth watered at it, but it wasn't the same kind of fervor that she got when there was a pulsating vein underneath her lips. "Come to apologize?" Her fiery eyes made contact with his frame as he came towards her, offering her glass. She took it with pursed lips, eyeing him as he kept a safe enough distance from her, occasionally taking a step forwards as though he was testing the waters to make sure that they weren't freezing or over-heating. She wanted to send a few biting words towards him, but then he said something that completely through her off guard. No one had ever said that to her. Her mother, her father, all of them, thought the opposite. She was too young to be a mother so they shut her up in their family home and locked her up for nine months until she gave birth to her baby girl and then she didn't even get to hold the baby. That child was hers, but she had no idea what had happened to her. If her life had been fruitful, loving, or even if she had had the care that Katherine would have so loved to have given her. Katherine didn't know and she would never know. "I don't even think you believe that Damon." Her words didn't come out in an angry way, as she would have expected them to; she was simply making an observation.

"Does it matter? Neither of us can go back to old times so why dwell on what we can't change?" She posed the question because she knew the reason that she had lost the majority of her humanity, any remnant of the fairytale loving girl that she had once been was because she left her human life behind. She was born out of malice, anger, and fear, and those were the emotions she had decided to hold onto. She was re-born to survive and that was why she would always take care of herself first, but she couldn't see the harm letting Damon in a little. Whether she liked it or not, she needed him on her side, at least, until she could get Stefan away from Klaus and then hopefully away from Elena. That was what she wanted, or so she thought. "I was fifteen and yes, he knew." Katherine finally brought the glass to her lips and drank some of the crimson liquid inside. The blood quenched every urge of thirst that she had in her body and the vodka gave the blood a kind of welcomed kick that she was searching for. She almost wished she could get drunk enough she could pass out, but she hadn't been able to do that in nearly a century. She was as immune to alcohol as she was to vervain now-a-days. Katherine smiled, chuckling lightly, "You don't know everything about me Damon. Even I have my defenses." She watched as he settled himself down on the armchair and then he got that all knowing mischievous look in his eye and she noticed how his gaze went from her shopping bags to her body. She set the glass down on the nightstand and got to her feet before walking over to him, bending slightly to gaze into those icy blues of his, "I recognize that look in your eyes sweetie, just like I remember exactly how it feels to have your tongue deep within my cunt. I don't forget things I enjoy Damon."

She pulled away from him and went over to her bags, "Why do you think I'd pretend to be Elena? It's the only way I knew I would get you to have a little fun with me." She was being devilish and she knew it, but he was trying to make penance with her so she was going to go back to being something like her normal self. He had just successfully broken down one of her barriers and she was trying to get it back up so she peeled off her clothes. He had already seen everything and Katherine wasn't one to be shy. She pulled off her shirt and tossed it onto the bed before bending down into one of her bags to pull out a dress. She then took off her skinny jeans and unclasped her bra before slipping a tight fitting dress over the top of her head and down her body until her black lace panties were covered. The dress was of nude silk and black lace, completely corseted with spaghetti straps holding it to her body. "You are right, I love to show off." If there was one think Katherine was definitely better at than Elena it was showing off her body so that she emphasized her goods. She liked to show what she was gifted with so she could get the reaction that she was now getting out of Damon. That frothing out of the mouth, eyes as wide as plates, lump in the throat look that he was giving to her now.

"Let me ask you a serious question Damon, why are you here? I'm sure there are better things that you could be doing than watching me, not for the dresses, but for the sake of catching a sight of me naked when you know very well I'll seduce you. Even though I know you look at me and imagine that I'm someone else. Is that any better really? Seeing me, but trying to find Elena or my pretending to be her? It's all the same. I make both of our fantasies come true." Katherine stepped towards him, grabbing onto the hemline of her dress to hike it up so it wouldn't tear, so she could straddle Damon's thighs. "Why not see me for me and have some unbridled fun? You know you want to," she breathed against his lips barely touching. For a moment, it was just the two of them, eyes locked on each other, the heat radiating between their bodies, and then she was pulling away from him. "I won't force your hand Damon. I want to be wanted, I don't want to pretend." She stepped away from him then, going over to her bags, pulling out another dress, a deep purple one, that wasn't quite as revealing as the one she had on. It was safer, but not entirely in her nature for this situation. She wouldn't seduce him, she had already done him wrong and she didn't want to give him reason to divulge her inner thoughts to anyone.

**DAMON'S POV -**

Damon couldn't help but ask her about her human life and the memories she had scrawled out in the journal he had been reading. Not only did they shed light on a side of her he never knew existed, but it made him curious as well. He missed being a human more than anything else, but it was a secret he kept harbored deep within his soul, and unlike Katherine, Elena, and Stefan—he didn't pour out his heart into the pages of a diary. He was much more intelligent than that. Words were evidence, something that could be used as blackmail or worse against someone. In his opinion it was like giving someone ammo to freely ruin you, and he would never be that stupid. Still, he enjoyed listening to Katherine's replies…even if he wasn't sure he believed her entirely. It was weird to think about her in such a mortal light, mainly because Damon had only ever known her as a fiery vampire and nothing more. To think that at one point she was just as innocent and sweet as Elena confounded him to the point where his brain didn't even have the capacity to think about it. Maybe at one time Katherine was the perfect woman, but she wasn't…not anymore. Her manipulative ways and self-centered actions prevented him from loving her to the degree that he once had. Of course to say the emotions were completely non-existent would've been a lie too. Although he was great at shutting things out, it was more of a way to ignore emotions and feelings rather than getting rid of them entirely. No one could do that, and as much as Damon hated to admit it he still very much loved Katherine Pierce.

He changed the subject with a smile on his face because relishing in the depressing past was not exactly his idea of a good time. That was Stefan's deal, not his—and so he sat there; nursing his drink of vodka and blood as Katherine sauntered over to him. She leaned down, her cleavage pushing together causing his gaze to divert there for a moment before returning to her warm pools. "Hmm," he chuckled a little under his breath as she moved over to her shopping bags. He wasn't going to argue with her, he was turned on and horny for hey in that moment. He needed a good fuck, considering his hand was the only thing keeping him company as of late since he had to be a 'good boy'. The council was depending on him which made it hard for him to go fuck and feed from high school students at his leisure, which is why he had stuck the blood bags and the occasional hunt with Katherine outside of city limits. Those were his good days, but they hadn't done that together in over a week. "Oh really? That's why," he mocked with a dry laugh. He didn't believe her for a second, but he played along to it because he really wanted to see her naked and he wasn't going to downplay it. Damon watched as she peeled her clothing from her body, stripping her shirt and tossing it before guiding down her skinny jeans, and disposing of her bra. His eyes traced the curve of her spine, licking his lips as he downed the rest of his drink before resting it on the chest at his side.

She pulled up a skin tight dress, and he loved how the fleshy undertone nearly matched her beautiful olive complexion and was contrasted with the dark black lace. When she turned around to face him his mouth nearly dropped, but he didn't want to give Kat the satisfaction and feed her ego, so he swallowed the lump that had developed in his throat from breathing heavily through his nose and he watched as she slowly started to approach him. He sobered up some when she posed her question, catching him off guard. It wasn't like Katherine to be serious and so he supposed that's why he was so willingly to think over what she had said. His hands naturally fell into the curve of her waist as she straddled him where he was sitting, asking him to see her for who she really was. "Oh you mean…a nasty bitch?" He smirked, his gaze deepening as it latched on to her mocha gems. When she withdrew her body from his he let out a little sigh, watching as her hips swing as she walked away. "You're wrong about one thing, Katherine," Damon began as he pushed himself up from the seat and walked up behind her. He stopped just an inch or two from where she was standing, his head dipping toward the top of her shoulder as he placed a heated kiss there. "I know you're not Elena, and I don't need to pretend you're her to get my dick hard. You're plenty alluring all on your own. I don't need you to be something you're not," he said in a low whisper. "Have you forgotten so easily how much I adored your Katherine?"

His question was a serious one, but it was rhetorical and he didn't need it answered because he knew where he stood with the evil angel before him. She loved Stefan. It was a broken record he heard from every woman, and he wasn't about to subject himself to another verbal lashing about how he wasn't as good as his baby sibling. So he didn't open up that doorway for conversation, instead he was going to satisfy his sexual appetite; the one he had no doubts that Katherine would have no qualms of helping him with. She may not have loved him, but he wasn't bad to look at, and she had said so herself—she liked his tongue in that beautiful pussy of hers. His lips melted back into her warm skin, his hand trailing down her arm before moving over her abdomen as he pulled her back into him. His dick twitched in his denim jeans, as he moved his mouth to the curve of her neck; letting it melt there as he released his tongue against her salty sweet flesh. He licked up her neck, sucking on her earlobe before he nibbled on it playfully. His hands moved down lower, grasping the edges of her ornate dress as he hiked it up over her hips. Then his palms smoothed down the tops of her creamy thighs, loving how silky her skin was as he massaged her legs in a fan like motion while his mouth continued to love on her upper body. He trailed kisses over her back, before he pressed his lips directly in her ear. "You're stunning Katherine, you break all molds," he murmured huskily in her ear before he sunk his teeth into her neck.

It was a firm bite, but one without fangs; he wouldn't break skin. He let out a lustful groan, his hand cupping her wet sex as he fondled her through the lace of her black underwear, only increasing his desire to have her. Gracefully he spun her around, his lips finally colliding into hers with a low moan as his tongue parted her smooth petals. His wet muscle tormented hers aggressively, his arms wrapping around her as his fingers grasped the zipper at the back of her dress; pulling it down with grading sound until it collapsed forward. He broke their lip lock then, his azure oceans latching on to hers as he guided the dress down her arms and tossed it to the floor. Damon ripped his own black t-shirt from his head, too impatient to deal with his pants then as he pulled her back into him. Her naked breasts mashed against his sculpted chest, his mouth ardently capturing hers as his hands moved down her back in a protective yet possessive way. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss this…if I didn't miss you," he breathed. He knew he had diarrhea of the mouth right then, because honestly Katherine didn't deserve to hear a damn thing he was saying. But despite his best efforts, he really did have emotions and sometimes he let them show…and right now was one of those times. His hands went for her panties then as he tugged them down her legs, finally becoming too fed up and ripping them into as he shoved her roughly down to the wooden floor of the bedroom. "I believe someone said they love my tongue in their cunt," he gleamed with a cocky smirk, lowering himself down her body inch by inch.

He skipped her breasts for now, however enticing, and headed right for the treasure. His nose pressed into her wet slit, his hand forcing her legs to spread and widen; revealing her glistening twat as he buried his face into her pussy lips. His tongue led the way, licking and flicking as he moved up and down her sweet area. He sucked on her diligently, clearing her preview of arousal. His hand gripped her hip, his fingertips digging into her flesh with urgency as his wet muscle moved up her lips before circling around her clit. He loved Katherine's noises, the buck of her hips exciting him further as pressed the tip of his muscle directly over the bundle of nerves. He felt it pulsate beneath his appendage, chuckling darkly at her reaction before he closed his lips over the pink bud. He sucked on her so hard that his cheeks concaved in before he released her with a pop. Damon didn't stop there though, his tongue flicked and swirled around her raw pearl before he slipped three fingers inside of her tight entrance. Her juices rushed around his digits, her muscles clamping on to him like an iron vice as he pushed his way in against them. "You're so fucking tight," he breathed. "Over five hundred and still can get my cock jumping," he laughed, his manhood straining in his jeans uncomfortably. He released the death grip he had on her waist, using his hand to undo the zipper of his jeans.

He pulled out his dick, stroking it and easing the pressure as he continued to eat her out. He began to finger fuck her, his wrist going a mile a second as he watched her naked body writhe and arch as she moaned out his name. Yes, that's right. _I bet Stefan can't do this for you,_ Damon thought smugly, burying his face into her sweet cunt as he lapped at her like he was parched for thirst. He knew she was her brink because her tight channel began to milk his fingers, spasming around him like a epileptic as obscenities left Katherine's mouth. Then just at the right moment he withdrew his fingers, diving his head down as he thrust his tongue inside of her. His fingers pinched at her clit, pushing her over the edge as her thighs clamped around his head. Her orgasm rushed into his mouth like a tidal wave, her sticky sweet soaking into his tongue as he licked her up; enjoying her taste as he swallowed her cum back into his mouth. Damon lapped up her slit, his tongue twirling around her sensitive bud before he moved back up her body with a mischievous grin on his mouth. In less than a second he had jerked her up from the floor and had her pinned against one of the poles of the bed frame as his mouth crashed against hers. His hands pushed down his boxers and pants as he kicked his way out of them. His palms cupped over either one of her breasts, groping and fondling them until her nipples were diamond crests against his palms. His hand grasped her thigh, positioning it over his hip as the head of his engorged dick rubbed against her drenched folds.

"I want to know you missed me," Damon breathed against her petals, his eyes capturing her chocolate stare. "But I don't want you to tell me what I want to hear Katherine, anyone can do that. In fact…everyone does that," he murmured against her mouth. "Just fuck me stupid," he growled into her mouth, his tongue slipping between her lips as he thrust inside of her tight feminine hollows. Her walls sucked him in to the hilt, a low rumble of approval escaping his chest and echoing in their moving mouths as her juices coated his cock. He slowly pulled out of her then, shoving himself back inside as he picked up her other leg; encouraging her to wrap her lengthy stems around him as they dropped to the plush mattress. He used gravity to plunge deep within her cunt, bumping her sensitive barrier until she whimpered beneath him. He'd leave bruises for her to remember this by. In fact, he didn't want Katherine to look at Stefan without remember this night—remembering and knowing that Stefan would never be able to pleasure her like Damon could. Sure, his ego was being fed, but he couldn't take anything from Katherine. She was too self sufficient to hurt, and the only thing he saw as fitting torture; would be to worm his way under her skin and carve his name in the recesses of her mind so that he was the only thing she could think about when she was fucking someone else. "Katherine," Damon breathed against her mouth, his tongue gliding over her lower pout as he gazed into her eyes. His hips pulled back and thrust forward, his pace picking up so fast that the sound of his balls slapping her ass echoed in his ears.

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

Katherine wasn't in the mood to deal with Damon which was saying something since she was always for playing a little game. In this circumstance however, she wasn't the ring master, she wasn't necessarily the one setting the rules and that bothered her. She didn't like playing games that she had no control over. In some way it made her feel threatened and that much more defensive which was probably why she didn't get serious very often. Their conversation was bordering on a line that she wasn't comfortable with and for her, being comfortable, was important because it meant that she was in control of herself. She was never one to let that go and Damon of all people knew that. Katherine preferred things her way, or no way which was why she wasn't in the mood to fuck him as someone that she wasn't. Though the game was fun to play once, there wasn't anything in it for her the second time around. She wasn't worried that Damon would pull a stake out on her and try to stab her heart to kill her, but it was more that she didn't want there to be another interference between them. He had valuable information about her now and that information needed protecting. Even if what he had discovered were thoughts and thoughts alone, she considered that sensitive information. Her thoughts made her weak because she wasn't meant to have them. She was all about not having any humanity whatsoever and the fact that she had the capacity to dwell on her past made her vulnerable, but pasts make a person who they are now and that belief applied fully to Katerina Petrova.

The idea of playing nice wasn't a pill she was willow to swallow, but Damon was just as conniving as her and as ruthless… at least he was once upon a time. She had great hopes for him though. Elena was breaking him down to a point where even he could see how futile it was going after her. Damon wanted to be happy and Katherine knew which path of his led to happiness and it wasn't in Damon to be good. He had lost all of the goodness in him the moment he had turned into a vampire. He was her pride and joy really where her siring was concerned… well, he had been. There were so many aspects of both the Salvatore brothers that Katherine wished were fused into one person, but that couldn't be done and so she had hung them both out on a line and dragged them along because she didn't want to be without either of them. True as it might have been that she loved Stefan, she was beginning to think that he was helpless. She didn't like Stefan as a ripper, she had followed him in those days and she hadn't been satisfied with his actions because it wasn't him. It was almost as if each brother had switched personalities, it was actually quite infuriating, but she was starting to see things in Damon that she had loved once upon a time. Granted she would have loved it if he doted on her as he had once done, but she also liked the fire that he possessed so she didn't particularly mind him either way so long as she was the one getting all of the attention.

It wasn't very clear to Katherine whether or not Damon was going to respond to her advances or the fact that he had initiated this altogether and leaving her hanging would only make her angry, but she was willing to try hope on for size. She doubted her ability with him. She had never doubted herself in this way before. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she could compel people her way, but she couldn't do that to him and it unnerved her that she had to try to get him to fuck her. It used to be so easy. All she had to do was flutter her eyelashes and suck on her bottom lip, that was all that she had to do and now she had to pretend to be her doppelganger in order to get him to sleep with her. It was ridiculous. Even though she knew she had his attention and those icy blue eyes of his were locked on her body, she wasn't sure he would act out on any of his impulses which would inevitably make him out to be lesser of a man in her eyes. Her sensitive ears picked up on the motion of his body as he stood up from his seat and a satisfied smirk formed across her plump, cherry lips. She had won. Every tactic was a good tactic, even if hers was a little evil; she knew he would go for her if she let him in a little, but it wasn't her idea really, it was all his. He was the one who had opened up her journals and she knew she could milk his guilt for all that it was worth and he was definitely worth it. She turned her head slightly to the side as he stopped behind her and then his lips molded along her shoulder and her eyelids fluttered closed. She ran her tongue along her bottom lip, dropping her head back slightly, listening to his silky voice whisper sweet words against her ear. She would have answered him then and there had he given her the opportunity to because the reality was that she did remember how loving he was with his attention when he was just a little human. He had been every girl's fantasy… he had been what she had wanted once upon a time when she was young, human, and irrationally led, but when she looked at him she was always reminded of the father of her baby and the heartbreak that had followed for her. That was Damon's only true downfall where Katherine was concerned.

There was no doubt, no question that Damon was a marvelous lover, he was attentive and generous, but she wasn't so sure that this would be what she was used to. He was hungry and she could tell by the way that he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her back against him; he was needy and she wasn't about to deny him. She moved her round ass against his groin in small circles as his tongue relished in the taste of her flesh. A moan vibrated along the back of her throat in a low hum as his hands cascaded down her hips to the hem of her dress. She could tell he was being careful with her, touching her in all of the right places as though he still remembered where her body longed to be fondled. She leaned back against him, loving the feel of his tongue along her back, his lips ascending to her ear before whispered love dripped from his voice so sweet that she was caught up in a moment she wanted to last for a very long time. She swallowed hard as his mouth slipped back down to her neck and then he did something that she didn't see coming—he took a bite. She sucked in a deep breath through clenched teeth at the surprise and though her skin wasn't broken, she wanted to return the favor, but his hand was already making her weak. His fingers pressed against her dampened panties, enticing her to lower her weight against the palm of his hand to urge him deeper, to let him know that she wanted him. Her body whisked around at his prompting, their lips meeting like lost lovers returned for the first time in decades. His tongue invaded her mouth and for the first time, she let him take control.

Her fingers slipped underneath the material of his shirt, sliding upwards along his abdomen, her fingertips softly grazing the contours of his sculpted muscles as his vigor grew stronger, more aggressive. She let him do what he wanted from taking off her dress to controlling her every action. Her arms wrapped around his neck as he brought their bodies together, his mouth colliding with her own in a passionate tango as his hands cradled her and felt her. The corner of her mouth drew up when he admitted to missing her, his hands greedily tearing the black lace that covered her pussy from his view and then he had her down on the floor. She nodded her head, pouting her lips slightly as he descended down her body. She opened her legs up to him, offering her sweet cunt to his pleasure. A shiver rolled down her spine, visibly through her body as his tongue licked along her sensitive flesh, gathering her arousal like molten chocolate on his wet muscle. He suckled along her sweet spot, her hips bucking upwards into his face as the pleasure sent a warm gush of sticky fluid from her pussy and into his mouth. Her chest rose and fell with great length to give her air as her heart pitter pattered wildly and then his lips wrapped around her clit and she felt herself die. Blood rushed to harden her jewel as a desperate whine fell from her lips on shaky breath. Her fingernails dug deep into the dark wood of the flooring, chipping away at it as the length of his digits plunged into her pussy. Her walls tightened around his violent intrusion, struggling to adjust to him. Her eyelids fluttered open long enough to see him stroking himself, a devilish smile etching onto her lips as her back arched up against the tensing within her lower belly. "Fuck me," she hissed, her hands sliding up along body, caressing her breasts, pinching at her nipples to harden them. His fingers pummeled in and out of her slippery entrance, his fingertips dragging along her soft patches of sensitive flesh until she was trembling underneath him, forcing her near to tears until she could feel her body tightening so harshly, she was ready to explode.

Her toes arched into ballerina points as he quickly dropped his mouth to her pussy and shoved his tongue into her tight hole, his fingers rubbing at her clit until she saw kaleidoscope colors burst out in front of her vision. She screamed out, her body falling into a freeze before releasing into several trembles as her cum oozed into his mouth, but she wasn't ready for him to go just yet. She reached down, grabbing onto the back of his head, rubbing her slit along his face, not particularly caring if he could catch a breath, he was a big vampire, he could handle her needs. She circled her throbbing clit along the tip of his noise, prolonging her pleasure until she was as loose cooked spaghetti. She savored the tingles that prickled along her insides for a moment, if that, before he was pulling her to her feet, slamming her against the pole of the bed. She reached out for him, her lips hungrily savoring the salty sweet taste of her arousal along his lips and tongue as got rid of his boxers so that she could finally have what she was looking forward to. Her fingers slipped through his dark hair, grabbing onto several curls, pulling his head backwards as his fingers molesting her breasts, hardening her nipples raw until he was fed up waiting. With one simple move, her leg was over his hip, his dick running along her swollen nether lips in a taunting manner that had a fire burning in her chocolate orbs, but then he posed a request and Katherine tilted her head. It didn't take him long to realize that she wouldn't say a word, not even to get his dick and then he thrust into her, burying himself to the hilt.

Her slippery muscles spread for him, clamping down around his erect cock as her mixture of arousal and cum dripped down his aching appendage, before he lifted her up and dropped the both of them down onto Stefan's bed. There was a certain level of hidden amusement for Katherine, fucking Damon in Stefan's bedroom, on Stefan's mattress; a little secret for the two of them. "Damon!" She wasn't sure if she screamed or if she squealed, but with one drop he had successfully rubbed along her G-spot earning quivers from her body. She heard her name on his lips and then he was thrusting into her body so fast her thighs were quivering. She bent her legs at her knees, clenching them around his hips as leverage to meet his ardent thrusts with her own hips until she was fed up. Katherine had never been one to be on the bottom so she flipped them over so Damon was on her back. "My love," she breathed along his lips, her tongue flicking out over his lips as she pulled herself up and bent backwards, her hands latching onto his ankles, her legs bent so that she resembled someone kneeling. She drove her hips down and pushed forward with every lift of her body, her breasts bouncing with each motion as she purposely gave him beautiful views of her perfect body. She rode his dick until she could feel her inner muscles aching with the friction, her body slapping against his passionately. She pushed her body forward, her hands colliding with his chest, her mocha eyes connecting with his oceans. She could feel his dick begin to twitch inside of her, his member releasing some pre-cum into her hollows, "That's it, cum for me, deep inside like I know you can." She growled as she pressed her body down, her lips going to his ear. "Tell me how much you love my tight pussy, tell me how badly you want me Damon… you want me forever? Hmm? I know you used to," she whispered just before he exploded inside of her pussy. She felt his seed shoot in long, thick strings to the back of her core, his body releasing his lust with every jump of his dick as she rode him, milking him for every last drop he was worth.

She sat up, grabbing onto his hand to pull him forwards to meet her, "How badly did you miss me?" Her tongue pressed behind his ear, touching that little soft spot of his that no one knew was there, but her. She heard him groan as she purposely clamped her pussy tight around his shaft, a vice-like grip that told him she wanted him to admit his desperate need for her. "That's my boy," she chuckled, "you stay like this for me, understand?" She purred, letting her body drop. Her back hit the mattress, her legs still straddling up and over him as she pressed her cunt down, pulling his erect cock down with her so that his pleasure mixed with a bit of pain. She lifted the middle section of her body up slightly with her feet, her upper back anchoring her down before she started to move her hips down and up Damon's thick dick. He was still so deliciously hard, like a fucking dildo and she loved him for it. He had always been this way, easy to excite, even as a human and she was happy that hadn't changed. She reached down with one of her hands, running her fingers along her slit slightly to gather moisture before she attacked her clit, pounding into him until she was whimpering. "Oh yes, right there, of fuck yes!" Her lower belly quivered as her pussy walls tensed and tightened around his dick as she struggled to push back her orgasm. She could feel herself reach a height, but then she'd stop. Over and over she did this until Damon wouldn't let her continue. She reached up for him, lifting herself to him, before dropping down on him and that was all it took to make Katherine pop. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her fingernails digging into the flesh of his back as her juices poured out over him, dripping in abundance like a waterfall as her orgasm took completely hold of her body, sending her into a spiral of pleasure and lust. Her body trembled, almost contorted slightly as she trembled like an earthquake over him. She whimpered as her body soothed over into a calm, but she didn't let him go.

She was consumed with pleasure, her eyes had completely glazed over and she wasn't about to let him see her like this. No, she was the dominant one… it would never be this way, she couldn't let him see her like this, he wouldn't let it go. Katherine licked at her lips pulling away from him for a second, "You think you can wait a second for me, keep your dick hard while I grab something?" She didn't really give him a chance to answer. She pulled herself up and she could feel more of her juices drip out of her as she pulled away from him. "Hmm," she moaned, before disappearing. She ran with vampire speed down to the cellar, grabbing several bags of blood, before getting back to the bedroom. She leaned up against the doorway and used her teeth to tear one blood bag open. The blood gushed out of the package and dribbled down her chin and her chest to the floor, hitting a few of her toes. "Tastes good," she purred, tossing several of the bags onto the bed, pushing Damon onto his back before she started to dribble the blood like chocolate sauce over his nude body. The blood spread over his chest, his arms, his legs, his cock, until there was enough to make Katherine satisfied. She leaned over him, her body sliding along his with the assistance of the blood until she was plastered to his front. Her lips pressed to his not so demanding or aggressive, but more passionate, almost tender, slow in a way. "I'm gonna eat you up," she smiled, as she sat up, straddling his lower hips, careful to bend his dick forwards so that, instead of letting him into her pussy, her nether lips parted so that she could slide up and down the length of his cock. She took hold of his fingers first, taking each one into her mouth, sucking the blood from them as moans left her lips as she slid her hips up and down the side of his dick. "You're so delicious," she said, her voice dropping low like Marilyn Monroe as she bent down, her tongue gliding along his chest in a snake like pattern down his belly. The tip of her tongue dipped into his belly button as she descended lower until his stiff one was right in front of her face. She looked up at him from her bent position, her tongue running along her blood tainted lips, "Feel free to put her dick down the back of my throat love, I can take it." She then dipped her head, her tongue swirling along his engorged head before she opened her mouth wide, tucking her lips over her teeth before she took him completely into her mouth until there wasn't any more of him to show. She could feel his dick in the back of her throat as her hand slid along his chest, coating in blood before she cupped his balls in her hands, massaging them together as she bobbed her head up and down his length.

**DAMON'S POV -**

Damon was in heaven. He would've never been able to do this with Elena, to be this rough and ardent with every precise moment he made; every fervent thrust he hammered into her wet pussy as she sucked him in over and over. His mind was reeling with pleasure, all of it almost too much to take, and the moment she cinched up her knees at his sides he felt the depth of her cunt increase; taking him to new levels of passion. "Katherine," Damon growled as he licked his lips, his crystal orbs latching on to hers. Before he knew it she had flipped him over, her chocolate embers burning holes through him as her pink tongue flicked like a serpents upon his lips. He watched as she pulled her body up, lowering herself backwards as her abdomen arched and her breasts stood perky—begging to be touched. "God you're beautiful," he whispered in a husky breath, his hands already venturing up the olive flesh of her thighs as her hands gripped on to his ankles. He let out a low moan, his eyes rolling back in his head as she began to slam down on him like a bucking bull. Each time her tight channel slid around him like a glover, spasming around his thick girth; making his dick harder than he thought possible. He let out a whimper of pain and pleasure, his hands moving up her rolling body as he groped at her tits—only pleased when both her nipples were hard and rolled into perfect pebbles by his fingers. Then he moved down, his thumb hooking between her pussy lips as he rubbed and pressed into her pulsating nub.

Each time she'd come down on him her breasts bounced with the rhythm, giving him the perfect show and igniting his own pleasure as his dick began to twitch with her rough movements. "Fuck, Katherine. Yes, fuck that cock," he nearly hissed, his hands helping lift her hips as she came down on him again and again; spearing her pussy with his shaft until he could feel his balls tensing with his oncoming release. His eyes connected with hers once more before falling shut, the tickle of her warm breath at his earlobe enough to get him going as she beckoned him to love on her with words. "God yes, I love that cunt," he murmured back, a small smirk cracking on his lips. "Maybe if you do this to me every day," he replied. He wasn't sure if she was serious asking him if he still wanted her, or if it was just in the heat of the moment, either way; even with his dick buried deep inside of her he wasn't going to be lured into a trap—one that would have him mangled and scarred again. He was having a good time with her, but he was going to be realistic; she hadn't changed and she probably never would. Which meant she was still the same selfish bitch she was before, she just had a nice pussy for him to toy with, lick, stroke, and she was the only woman in his life that could satisfy his voracious sexual appetite. One more clench of her deliciously smooth muscles around his manhood had him erupting inside of her like a simmering volcano. He let out a moan, her name falling from his lips in a string of mumbles as he dick jerked inside of her.

His cum shot out in thick ropes, the warmth of their juices concocting as gravity took hold and it ran down his cock and down between his balls and ass cheeks to the bed. Despite his lack of need for oxygen, he was breathing heavy as his intense cerulean gaze met hers. He let her pull him up, his arms wrapping around her as his hands clung to her back. Damon smiled at her, letting out a little moan of approval when her tongue teased behind his sweet spot at the back of his ear. "I always miss you Kat. You give me something no other woman can," he admitted, a low rumble escaping his chest as her sugar walls clamped down on him again. His dick was already getting hard for her once more. He raised his brow at her remark, curious as to what she meant, but the moment she flopped herself backward his cock let him know. He let out a pained growl, feeling his erection being tugged in an abnormal direction but her moans of bliss made it all worth it. His eyes peered down at her as he watched her start to slide over his thick length, the warmth of her juices coating him and making his beat to life for her. "Mmmm," he hummed, enjoying the show as her fingers collected her own glistening moisture before she used her own lubrication to pleasure herself. Damon's eyes nearly bugged out of his head watching as her digits worked her little pleasure button into a hard jewel until she was crying out as she grinded down on him. His gaze was intent as he observed her, watching her every movement as she stifled her orgasm again and again.

The ripple of her feminine walls was driving him nuts as she teased herself, further teasing him. "Katherine stop being a fucking tease," he muttered gruffly, his fingertips digging into her hips until her body sat up; meeting his as she slammed down on him roughly. Her walls clamped down on him, milking him again as a generous wave of her heady nectar rushed over his length. Damon's arms held her close, the trembling of her body electrifying his senses as she held to him in a desperate need that he rarely felt from her. He enjoyed the moment, burying his nose in her silky locks as he took in a deep breath of her lush scent that always relaxed and soothed him; though he didn't understand how. Katherine had caused him nothing but pain yet she managed to make him feel good, alive even, and remind him of who he once was when he first fell into her arms as a human. That Damon would never come back completely, but in the stillness of her arms he felt that same pull of his heartstrings when he was with her; the pull of the innocent unadulterated love, the want to please her and make her happy for all of eternity. It lingered in the back of his mind, like a fall off fairytale that never came true—but he felt it then, holding her as she basked in the afterglow of her climax and he loved her in that moment all over again. If only he could have this with her all the time, and not just in flickers and momentary sparks. His lips melted into the top of her shoulder and up her neck before she pulled away, requesting that he stay hard while she went and fetched something.

"Mmm, I don't think that'll be a problem. I'll just watch that cute little ass of yours walk away and it would jump to life and get harder," he smirked. She was only gone a few seconds before she returned, standing in the doorway of his bedroom as she tore open a blood bag with her teeth. He grinned at her, watching her with eager eyes as the red crimson dripped down her chin and chest as she licked away what she could. She had a devious mind, something else he loved about her. They really matched and complimented each other well now; bother sexual devils with a hardy craving for the pleasures of the flesh. "I'm sure it does," he responded with a chuckle as she tossed the bags on the bed. He laid down at her urging; watching as she began to dump the delicious red liquid down his body like it was milk chocolate or the finest dessert. When every appendage was completely covered and no part of him was left untouched, she molded her body to his; sliding against him until she was stuck to his chest. Her lips fell on his then, a warm moan of approval escaping into her mouth as he parted his lips and let his tongue lead the way. His wet muscle joined hers, his hands entangling in her beautiful head of hair. Damon felt his dick jerk when she said she was going to eat him up, and she watched as she guided his thick shaft between her folds as she stroked herself with his hardness.

He swallowed the lump of desperation that formed in his throat, watching each of his fingers get sucked clean as her blood stained petals wrapped around them. "So are you," he replied, his voice dripping off his tongue in an adoring manner as she lowered her head. He watched as her pink appendage collected up blood, moving down his chest in an 'S' like pattern until her face was right in front of his dick. "Katherine…" he whispered, knowing what was coming and ready to die for it if he had to. His cock was throbbing painfully, desiring another release, and her last statement made him want to thrust the fucking thing down the back of her throat. The moment she opened her mouth he disappeared, inch by inch until he was buried in her warm orifice and was sliding down the back of her throat. He took her permission, taking advantage of it as he bucked forward, sending the tip of his engorged head further down her spongy esophagus until he could hear her gurgling. "Shit," he let out a long hiss as her hands cupped his boys, rolling them around and squeezing them as he twitched in her mouth. He wasn't going to be able to hold out long, but he didn't want to. He wanted to explode inside of her kissable trap. It didn't take him long to, either; not with the way she bobbed up and down on him like he was the most delicious lollipop she had ever sucked on before. "Fuck, I'm gonna cum—" he groaned, his cock already jumping as it burst its hot seed into her mouth.

He thrust his length down her throat, is fingers twirling around her dark hair as he emptied himself inside of her. When she drank him down, releasing him finally he coaxed her back up to him; his mouth tenderly claiming hers as he held her close to him. "That was…" he let out a laugh, "there are no words, Katherine." They had always been good together, especially physically, but her remembered intellectually they matched to and time had not changed that it had only made it stronger. Trouble was, he wasn't even sure if he wanted to give her a chance and knowing Katherine she probably had no interest either because she wanted Stefan to follow her around like a lost puppy. He brushed those thoughts off for now because he didn't give a shit about them. "Come here, lets go get cleaned up," he told her, helping her up off his bed as he led her into the shower. They spent an hour in the shower bathing one another, Damon spending much of the time kissing her and tending to her needs before he went down on her under the water. They fucked again before the two of them passed out in his bed, leaving Stefan's bedroom a mess and filled with blood and cum stains. When he woke in the morning Katherine was gone…just like that. The part that angered him most was that he wished she was still there, and he actually _missed _her. He couldn't decide whether he just pissed that scrumptious pussy of hers or her as a person, maybe a little of both, but he was pissed that she just up and left like she always did. Though he couldn't for the life of him understand why he had expected anything more from her.

It had been almost a month since her disappearance, and he had gone back to being Elena's detective; out on the biggest man hunt to locate Stefan and Klaus. Most were dead ends, and when he did get leads by the time he arrived to check them out they were already gone. It was frustrating and irritating, his feelings for Elena still very much real and he knew he was unable to act on them—he knew she wouldn't want it. He was becoming bitter and irritated and he was angry that his brother had saved him. He would've preferred to have been dead some days, just to prevent the monotonous mountain of research and paperwork he had to do daily while Elena was at school attempting to be a normal high school student. It was just another boring day when he was fixing himself a scotch when his phone started to go off. He rolled his eyes as he pulled it out of his pocket, his caller ID failing to announce who the caller was as he put it to his ear. "What do you want? I'm busy," he snapped, not having the slightest idea who was on the other end…that was until the deep throaty voice echoed in his ears. "Katherine…how nice of you to finally call. I'm glad you're not dead," he muttered dryly, sarcasm laced in his voice. "Give up the dirt, I know you're tracking your little boyfriend so spill it. Where is he, because I have another lady here who wants him back just as bad and I'm sort of loyal and indebted to her and my brother since he saved my life. So, where is he? Because I'm tired of wasting my time."


	3. The Game

Thank you so much for the reviews! We're really glad you guys are enjoying the story :) We really love writing Damon and Katherine together. We find their dynamic interesting and bit reckless, not to mention unhealthy. Makes for an interesting story for sure. Thanks again for reading, we hope you continue to enjoy it :D

~Yoshi

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

As far as physical pleasures went, Damon had a certain expertise with her body that had always been present with him. She wasn't sure if it was natural talent or if it had something to do with the fact that Damon was more attentive than Stefan was. As a human, he had been so careful with her, like she had been glass, and he paid attention to where she liked to be touched and which movements would get her going. It was like some kind of talent that he possessed and he hadn't given up on it with her. He could have fucked her relentlessly for all she cared, but even as rough as he was being, she could sense some kind of restlessness in him that wasn't letting him leave mark son her body. She had started this hoping to be sore, but she was ending this hoping that maybe, just maybe she would get on good terms with him again and it was that flicker of humanity that had her running to get the blood. It was a forceful reminder of what they both were and of what they would be together. They were a dangerous mix, a dangerous couple to put together; they were like chemical warfare on each other's minds and yet they drew together like magnets ready to spark a fire between them. It wasn't until after she had covered him with blood, licked him up enough to satisfy her tongue, that she offered him something she knew he wouldn't refuse. Katherine, though hungry for her own satisfaction, wasn't completely selfish. She could give as much as she took and she thought that he deserved some love and she wouldn't mind having his cock buried in the back of her throat.

"Mmm, yes, that's right, put my mouth where it belongs," she hummed as she licked along his length. She was generous with her tongue as she flicked and circled the width of him like he was some delicious kind of candy and, to her, he was, there was no doubt about that. She had given him permission to run wild with his needs and once the stroke of electricity travelled up his spine, she knew he would take her words and abuse them, but she liked being used, she always had. His hips bucked into her face, sending his cock deeper into her mouth until she could feel him hitting the backs of her throat and sliding down her canal as if she could swallow him whole. He hammered into her without mercy and she was lucky that she didn't have a necessity for air or else she probably would have been suffocating. With every slam into her throat, she felt herself and heard herself gurgling on him, almost chocking, but not quite. In a normal circumstance, she didn't have a gag reflex, but she had yet to face a man that had the width that Damon had; she would never tell him that though, not on his life unless he was teasing her into an orgasm. Her fingertips pressed tenderly against his boys, pushing backwards, curling slightly because she knew just where to touch him to get him to shiver as he had done to her. She could feel his dick beginning to harden painfully and twitch inside of her mouth as she bobbed her head in parallel unison to his motions until he burst into her mouth. He buried himself deep within the back of her throat, his hot seed shooting down her passage way making swallowing unnecessary due to how deep he had forced himself within her mouth.

She hummed, looking up at him as she suckled her way up his cock, her tongue swirling, milking him dry until she was flicking his engorged head with her wet muscle. She licked her lips and crawled back up his body at his urging, the blood spreading further along their bodies before their mouths joined together to become one. His kiss was much more loving than she expected it to be, but she received it with as much tenderness as she could muster. Her tongue gracefully slid along his lower lip before she allowed him entrance into her warm orifice. "I have made the famed bad boy Salvatore speechless?" She questioned with sparkling eyes, "Do I get a prize for that?" Her full lips upturned into a sensual smile before he suggested that they get cleaned up and she knew that was her prize. He guided her to the bathroom and prepared the water before taking her into the shower with him. He was careful with her, doting upon her every appendage to make sure that she was clean and she, in turn, did the same for him. She caressed his shoulder with gentle kisses, her tongue licking at stubborn traces of crusted blood that the water was having difficulty rinsing off of him. She cared for him in a way that was uncharacteristic of her, but it was a favor that he ended up returning to her by going down on her amongst the water before she ended up pouncing him for another round of fun. She found the second time with him to be more playful and certainly more aware than they had been mere minutes before. It was a side of him that she loved and she realized then that he was awakening a part of herself that she had buried long ago and she wasn't entirely certain that she liked the fact that he was bringing up feelings she would rather leave dead. The truth of the matter was that she loved both Stefan and Damon, but she had simply forced her hand to make her choice and she had chosen Stefan over Damon because, at the time, Stefan gave Katherine what Damon couldn't—opposition. Damon had always been so concerned that he had to be careful with her that he never dared to do anything where Stefan did of his own accord and she liked the challenge… but now, well, she wasn't so sure.

It was as if they had switched personalities and she wasn't liking the fact that she was becoming attracted to Damon in the way that she was attracted to Stefan… or was. 'Fuck,' she thought as Damon helped her out of the shower and began to dry her down with a towel. Katherine had never done well with mixed feelings, like Tinkerbelle she was really only capable of holding one in her body at a time, and feelings usually brought out her humanity and she hated that more than anything. Her humanity was her weakness and it needed to stay away. After they were both dry, for the most part, she went with Damon to his bedroom and spent the rest of the night in the company of his arms where spoken word drifted into sleep. Katherine, though, didn't have any intent of staying beyond dusk. She woke before Damon did and she got herself dressed and left without collecting all of her things. She left all, but one of her journals behind as a way to tell Damon that she would be back, but she also wanted him to read them for some reason. She wanted him to know her as no one else did even if he would hold it over her head. She could deal with the consequences later, but the journal she took with her was all about Klaus and she needed that, it was something she couldn't let him finish or else he may not want her around and she wanted him to let her stay. She liked being in his company, but she couldn't stay with him. She left as soon as she could, not even contemplating leaving a letter, because she needed him mad at her. She needed him fuming so that he wouldn't want to be with her anymore.

For the next month, she tracked down Klaus and Stefan, following them along their journey, but also struggling with her own thoughts and feelings. She knew that Damon was mad at her and that was how she wanted him to be because she didn't want to see the tenderness in him anymore. He was becoming a temptation and she didn't want that. He was so much like the man that had first stolen her love and she didn't want to have to go through that heartache again. Damon was in love with Elena after all and Katherine wasn't going to intrude upon that, she would just fight for the safer option, she would fight for Stefan instead. Maybe it was a way of convincing herself that that girl that had once believed that without love, there was no point in living didn't exist anymore. However, Katherine knew that she had to face the facts and soon she was standing in a phone booth, with the goal of luring Damon out to Chicago to be with her under the ruse of helping her with getting Stefan back. When she heard his voice on the other end of the phone she smiled, "Hmm, should I call back later then?" Her voice was silky and raspy as it always had been and she could almost hear his heart stop beating at the sound of her voice before pumping itself to life again. "Oh, don't tease me Damon, we both know you're lying," she sang, giggling slightly as he demanded to know where Stefan was. "Come on Damon, I don't even get a hello? Maybe a 'how are you?' You should be good to me, I'll be good to you in return." Katherine was a tease, but what else would he expect from her? "Park Hyatt Chicago penthouse, tomorrow eight o'clock Damon, don't be late." With that she hung up the phone and walked out off the phone booth. She felt accomplished as she walked over to the corner and halted a cab.

The next day came rather quickly and she spent her time tracking down Klaus and Stefan and found that Klaus was doing something very suspicious with Stefan, something that Katherine didn't like—he was reminding Stefan of his Ripper days. She knew what Klaus was trying to do, she knew that when Stefan was a ripper that Klaus and him had gotten on and Katherine couldn't let Klaus return Stefan to that state. He needed to be stopped and now Damon was on his way to help Katherine achieve that. Earlier that day, she had compelled a few prostitutes to come to her penthouse at 7:30 because she knew she'd be hungry and she wanted Damon to feed on that carnal nature that was deep within his soul, the nature that she was sure Elena had been spending the majority of her time trying to suppress. When the girls arrived, she forced them both to get into the large bathtub and was each other in a mass of bubbles and stay in there until she told them otherwise. She watched them take off their clothes and admired their naked bodies from afar as they got into the tub and did as they were told, "You two can have fun if you want to while I'm away." Katherine smiled and walked out, closing the door after herself. She was standing in front of the full length mirror in the connecting bedroom when she could hear moans coming from the bathroom and she smiled deviously. Her black jeggings fit tightly to her body, the deep purple of her blouse hung slightly off of her body in a way that made her seem effortless and flawless at the same time as though she hadn't tried to look good when she had actually put a bit of thought into it. A second knock came to her door and a sultry smile curved onto her ruby lips as she walked to the door. She opened it and the welcomed sight of Damon came into her chocolaty gaze. "You're late." She stepped away from him, sauntering into the living room, leaving him to close the door behind himself. Her bare feet melted into the vanilla colored plush carpet until she plopped herself down onto the sofa. "How've you been?"

**DAMON'S POV -**

Damon was bad at hiding his anger, and with Katherine there was no exception to the rule. He was irritated that she had left, hurt by it even—and he hated himself for that. He didn't want himself to care about Katherine, yet after the night they shared that's what he had found himself doing again and it made him feel weak and helpless, stupid even. He didn't want to fall victim to Katherine's games again like had over a hundred years ago, yet even now as he was barking at her on the phone; insulting her and being short with her, he was glad she had called because he had missed her deep throaty voice. It was sexy and addictive, and he loved hearing it murmur his name, but the unfortunate thing was Katherine didn't really care about him. She cared about Stefan, and that's why she had been gone almost a month chasing after him like a wounded lioness who wanted her king back. It made him sick. She could have any man she wanted, most of them wanting her, but she wanted the one she couldn't have—the one who didn't want her. Her attitude was a typical spoiled brat to the core, and he hated that about her; he hated out selfish and closed off she was. Damon wasn't sure if he could live the rest of his life hoping to see glimmers of humanity in her like he had that night with her. It wasn't any way to live and it most certainly wasn't fair to him. "Don't tease me Katherine. You're just wasting my time," he grumbled into the receiver, putting his drink to his lips as he took a hard swallow in hopes it would ease his tension.

Then she gave him an address, hanging up on him. He looked at the phone, hating that she knew he would show—which he would. Beyond finding his brother and Elena wanting that too, he wanted to see Katherine. It was a sickness. She was like a disease eating away at him like the plague, and yet she was the only cure for it. He hated her, hated himself—but despite all his masochistic ways, he dragging himself upstairs; packing a suitcase before he retreated to his Camaro and headed for Chicago for a little trip. He drove most of the night all the way into the morning, and he was running behind by fifteen minutes when he finally pulled into the drive; letting the valet take the car. He carried his one suitcase, heading to the elevator and riding it to the very top floor until he found her room. His fist rapped against the wood impatiently before the door finally swung open. His eyes latched on to her instantly, still following her even after she waltzed away from him with that sultry swing in her hips. He pulled his bag in, leaving it just inside before he shut the door and walked over to her as she sprawled out on the sofa. "Oh just great Katherine, I keep myself busy babysitting," he muttered bitterly. Taking care of Elena wasn't what bothered him, it was the fact he wasn't appreciated for it. She used him, and he saw it clearly. He was the replacement Stefan, she was always trying to change him, and if she had her way he was certain she would've accompanied him on this trip but he couldn't allow it—he wouldn't have.

"How are you? It looks like you're living large," he pointed out, his gaze shifting around the spacious suite as he stood in front of her. She looked mesmerizing as always; every curl falling perfectly over her shoulders and down her chest, her clothes accentuating and playing up all of her attributes. She knew how to work it, and he hated her for that, too. That was when the sound of moaning echoed in his ears, causing his neck to jerk to the right from where it had come from. "Have company?" He inquired, walking away from her as he stalked toward the door. He opened it, standing there as his jaw dropped with the beauties that were naked; making out and fondling one another in the tub. "Wow, thanks Kat, you shouldn't have," he told her, walking further into the bathroom to the point Kat couldn't watch unless she got up. "I'm hungry…not just for blood, either," Damon growled, wanting to get a rise out of Katherine…and he knew he would, he was going to milk this for all it was worth. "Ladies…it looks like you could use a gentleman in this pond of fun," he laughed, motioning to the water that they were splashing in. They giggled and nodded in agreement as Damon unbuttoned his shirt, tossing it to the floor as his hands went for his jeans. "That's good because I've been driving for the past seventeen hours and I'm pretty tired and sore…and _dirty_." A snicker left is lips, his hands abandoning the jeans for a moment as he pulled a naked blonde into his chest. She dampened his shirt with water, his lips claiming hers roughly as his hand cupped her wet sex.

A little squeal echoed in the tile room, and from the corner of his eye he could see Katherine standing there with the devil in her eyes. He ignored her, acting as though she wasn't even there as his fangs punctured the girl's neck. He was more interested in feeding and pissing Katherine off, then getting some pussy on his dick. The iron salt taste washed over his tongue and down the back of his throat, but he let his fingers dip between her drenched slit just to spite the vibrant beauty off to his side. Then in less than a split second, Katherine moved through the room like a hurricane, the sound of breaking bones prevalent in his ears as they dropped dead to the floor and in the bathroom waters. She saved the one in his arms for last, jerking her from him so that his teeth ripped through her flesh as she snapped her neck right in front of him. She dropped to the floor in a crumpled heat, bloodlust in Katherine's eyes as her umber oceans lassoed on to his. Damon let out a hardy laugh, a grin spreading across his lips as he looked at her. Then in seconds he had her pinned to the opposite wall, his hand wrapped daringly around her neck but not hard enough to cut off her supply. "Good…" he whispered hotly against her petals. "Now we're alone, just like I wanted it." His mouth crashed into hers, his hands on her body like roaring heat to a dry fall forest as his fingers clawed at her in adoration.

His lips were ardent and tentative as they moved up her neck, his tongue licking over her vein before he sunk his fangs smoothing into her jugular. He groaned into her smooth skin, his body pressing firmly into hers as the crimson life force dumped into his mouth. Damon only took enough to satisfy before he pried his blood stained lips from her throat, licking away the excess that oozed from the bite until she healed. "I saw the journal," he whispered in her ears, his tongue flicking at her lobe before he allowed his cerulean oceans to meet hers. "Why did you leave, Kat? Why is he so important," he murmured his lips dragging over hers. "I missed you. I wanted to see you in the morning and you weren't there. You're never there." He pulled back to look at her again, his hands still on her waist. Then he let fo of her, taking a step back as he left the massacre that was now the bathroom and walked back where she had been sitting earlier. He collapsed on the couch, his eyes shifting to the television that wasn't even turned on as he sat there blankly. It was a mistake to come here, he knew that already, and yet he couldn't bear to leave her and just save himself the trouble and heartache.

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

It wasn't even a question for Katherine of whether or not he would show because she knew that he would. She was so tantalizingly tempting and he wouldn't be able to resist the irresistible. It was simple as that and now that he was standing in front of her, she was even more convinced of her power over him. He could use getting Stefan back as an excuse all he wanted, but Damon would never be able to fool Katherine, she could see right through every single one of his charades. She was gifted that way and he knew that, he was just failing to acknowledge what he had learned once before; however, Katherine was making the same mistake. She was falling into feeling which she had only done once before back in the 1800s when she had first stumbled upon the Salvatore brothers. She killed the man who fathered her child and swore that she would never let her humanity back in and yet, here she was, a willing participant in her own weakness. It was funny how things worked out that way and how she was only slightly bothered by it. She had run from it a month ago and where she had gone nearly 150 years without Stefan, she couldn't handle going a month without Damon; now where was the fairness in that? She almost had the urge to set herself on fire, but her life was too valuable for some suicidal thought she knew she could cure if she simply gave in and went into Damon's arms. Problem with that was, she wasn't entirely sure he was what she wanted. She didn't want him to get as clingy as he used to be with her, as needy to please her. She liked tension and obstacles and even though he seemed willing to give them to her now, it was only because she had forced his hand and places several walls between the two of them.

There was gentle music playing in the background, a mix of folk and Americana, her favorite genres, meant to gently sooth Damon's anger; one of her usual ploys with him. She had her ways of getting him where she wanted him to be and if she had to go to her last measure and strip to get him to shut up and cave, then so be it, she would. Katherine had never been below putting her body up for collateral and quite frankly when she had Damon to strum her to heaven, why not give herself over to him? He was as talented as she was and their bodies fused in a way that was almost genetic… chemical in a way. She loved him for that and she might as well as convince herself that was the reason that she cared so much for him, but that wasn't the truth. She loved both brothers, but it was always a question of who she loved more. She thought it had been Stefan, but that was now debatable. All of this time with Damon was starting to prove to her that things were a little more on the grey side than they were black and white, but she had always preferred having options. At least this way she was having her fun and her life wasn't so serious, but again, it was all excuses with her. Her life was a jumble, a mess of excuses and that was something that she couldn't change; excuses were lies and she was built on that foundation.

"She's paying you though right? The Damon I know wouldn't babysit for free." It was obvious that Katherine's idea of payment was sexual, but she could tell in the way that Damon avoided her gaze that it was otherwise. "Oh for fuck's sake! You've at least kissed her right?" She raised her perfectly plucked eyebrows at him, one rising a bit higher than the other in question and then mock surprise. "Your hand must be tired," she teased, but as quickly as her quip left her lips, he was stomping over it with a change of topic. "So you do care enough to ask me how I am." She was happy and it was clearly written across her features, "I'm bored. It really isn't fun tailing after Klaus and Stefan like some servant. All Klaus does is show him around, like he's trying to goat the Ripper out in Stefan again…" It was an interesting thought and one she knew to be correct, but no sooner had her words left her lips had the moaning in the bathroom gathered Damon's attention. Katherine offered Damon one soft nod in response to his question and she watched a spark fuse to his icy blue oceans as he turned and walked away from her towards the sounds that were escaping the bathroom. She had brought the women over as a means of loosening him up, but she immediately received this sinking feeling in her chest and belly as though he was going to use this plot against her and she hadn't thought of that as an option. Everything always went her way and she could sense that he was going to go off and ruin that. She watched him open up the door and this satisfied smirk spread on his lips which she snarled at in response. "They are my toys Damon, not yours," she hissed after him as he disappeared into the room. She knew what he was trying to do, he was trying to force her to get up and check in on him, but she wouldn't. No, she refused to play to his games if they weren't playing to her rules.

Her lips thinned into a line, her nimble arms crossing over her chest, one leg bouncing over the other in agitation. Katherine could hear the girls giggling in the bathtub, the water splashing about around their nude bodies as they leaned towards the coming man that had entered the room. 'He can fuck whoever he wants to,' she told herself, rolling her eyes, as she tried to divert her attention around the room, the urge to find herself a boy toy very prevalent in her mind. When she heard his footsteps drawing further into the bathroom, Katherine had had enough. She faced the music and knew she had to stop him before he went too far, but she wanted to see just how far he would go to annoy her. She propped herself up against the doorframe just as Damon grabbed a hold of the blonde and brought her to his chest. His lips mashed into hers and his hand dipped down to her filthy, used cunt. An anger lit in her eyes that she hadn't felt since she had seen both Salvatore brothers pine for Elena for the first time. She wasn't happy and it was a reckless thing to do to make Katherine Pierce mad. Her anger came like the furry of a blazing fire and she wasn't afraid to unleash it on Damon. She watched as he lowered his lips to the girl's neck and punctured her pulsing vein with his fangs, the fangs that she gave to him. It wasn't until she noticed his fingers seep into the girl's pussy that Katherine spurred into action on impulse, not on a thought out action. With movements as swift as the wind itself, Katherine whirled around the room with the power of a twister. There were three girls, two in the tub, and one in Damon's arms. That bitch would be last for being the one Damon chose.

It only took her a few seconds to snap the necks of both of the blondes that were in the bathtub still touching their bodies because they had no idea what was coming. Katherine slammed the side of her hand against their spines before grabbing their damp hair, yanking backwards so that follicles tore and bone broke at their necks until they were both sliding into the tub nearly in unison, one slightly ahead of the other. Then her gaze turned to slut in Damon's arms. Katherine took the girl by her forearm, severing the bone under the crush of her strength as she pulled the blonde towards her. Damon's fangs tore through the girl's flesh with the hard pull ad Katherine reached for the girl's head, snapping her neck in one hard motion to the side so that she slumped into a heap against Damon. It was only after her short massacre was complete did she stop. "Tell me why I shouldn't snap your neck too Damon," she was begging him for an excuse as she stood there, chest heaving, eyes flaming. He looked pleased with himself for riling this response out of Katherine and she was about to lunge at him, but he took the move first. His hand wrapped around her throat as he tossed her against the wall, locking her in place with the firmness of his body. His lips brushed against her own moist petals, their eyes staying hooked on one another as he spoke. His voice was husky in her ears and she was taken with him. The anger seemingly melted from off of her body and replaced itself with sultry heat as his lips molded to her own. She opened her mouth for him, bending her head towards him as their tongues twisted together in a tango of dominance. Her hands slid up the length of his arms until she could feel her way along the backs of his shoulders, a few of her fingers disappearing into the dark waves of his hair as his mouth carnally consumed her very essence, trailing down her jaw line, sucking at her flesh until he was just above her pulsing jugular.

"Take what you want," she hushed as her arms wrapped around him, pressing him against her neck as she widened the gap to give him easy access to the blood that created him. His sharp teeth sunk into her flesh like a knife to milky butter. She moaned in response, her back arching against the wall, her body pressing firmly to him as she wrapped one of her lengthy stems around his leg, curling to him like he was her mold. Her eyelids fluttered closed as he drank from her and though he was taking her life force, stealing her energy, she found it highly erotic and she wanted him to take his fill even if it meant being passed out on her bed for the next week. Her blood poured into his mouth in ample abundance until he had his fill of her and then he pulled away, her body healing before his eyes even met hers. "Best you ever tasted?" She purred, her lips pressed against his ear, the tip of her tongue dipping into his ear before she pulled away to look at him and listen to his words. He looked so wounded as though he couldn't figure out why every woman he ever loved went for his younger brother instead of him and even if she could give him an answer to satisfy him, she couldn't. She felt for him then, an excruciating pain because she knew what it was like to have loved turned against her. He had loved her and she had pushed him away. How did that make her any better than the man that had shunned her when she was pregnant with his baby? Did Damon not have every right to kill her as she had killed the same almost lover she had once upon a time?

He nearly shattered her heart and as he pulled away, a ball quenched and lodged itself into her throat. She didn't want him to let go. His hands left her waist and he turned, running from her and she thought he'd leave her completely, walk out the door and trade this heartbreak for another with Katherine, but he didn't. She heard him sit on the couch in the living room and there she stood because this game of hers was finally beginning to take a toll on her. She looked at her face in the mirror and saw nothing in her reflection as if she was truly a vampire of legend with no image to see in the reflective glass. She sighed a little and wondered if she could give him the confession that he was searching for, but her pride stood in the way. She was after Stefan. Stefan, Stefan, Stefan… Damon. She turned then and walked out of the door and out into the living room with a melancholy look on her face as though her thoughts had consumed her and she stood there as mute as death itself. "Just because I say things Damon, doesn't mean that I mean them… just because you heard it doesn't make it true." Speaking in riddles wasn't helping and she knew it, but it was her backwards way of saying that she had a tendency to lean towards falsities to protect herself. "I didn't leave for him, I left for myself." She wanted so badly to tell him that she had wanted to stay; she wanted to tell him that she couldn't risk falling in love with him again. She had flipped her coin and Stefan had been staring her in the face, but now Damon was there and her coin wasn't landing, wasn't telling her anything… he was like a spindle that never stopped.

She walked over to him and got down onto her knees in front of him deciding that if she didn't give him something to bite off of, then she would probably lose him forever. It was another one of her tactics and she played her cards very well. "If you read my journals, you know that I did love you. I loved the both of you, but it's a balancing act that I was getting tired of carrying. I wanted one of you so I made my choice. I'm not going to lie to you Damon and string you along like some puppy on a leash, I didn't come back for you, but that doesn't mean I couldn't leave with you either now does it? I could very easily change my mind, I'm fickle that way, but even then, aren't you hopelessly in love with Elena, as Stefan is? Tell me now Damon, am I fighting for the right Salvatore? Are you really here to save your brother or are you here because you wanted to see me?" She knew she had given him enough food for thought to entertain him and she didn't really expect him to give her an answer as she was sure he didn't expect her to give him the words she had just spoken. "If you want to save your brother, I may have a solution. First, I know why Klaus wants Stefan and if it hadn't been for you, Klaus probably wouldn't have gotten his way either." She got to her fee then and walked over to the refrigerator that offered the bar. She pulled it open and pulled out two small bottles of chilled vodka before tossing him one.

"Back in the 20's I was following Stefan who found his way to Klaus and Rebekah at a club and I think he would have fallen for her too if things hadn't gotten out of control and Klaus hadn't compelled Stefan into forgetting their encounter. They were meant for each other then and Klaus… I think he's tired of being alone and he wants that friendship. Why he hasn't given Stefan those memories back, I don't know. I think he's just trying to force Stefan into making a willing decision to revert back to his old ways." Katherine sat herself down across from Damon before lifting her legs over his lap, "I don't think either of us want that especially if you want me. You get Stefan back to Elena, ruin my chances of having him, steal me for yourself. It's a nice plan, don't you think?" She had this teasing look in her eyes and it was clear that she had reverted back to her old ways. As sentimental as she could be, she wasn't about to let Damon feel that she could be what he used to have. She cared for him, but she wouldn't say it. She might even still have the capacity to love him, but she wouldn't allow him to see it. "I want to go to Stefan's old apartment in the morning. I have a feeling that they may stop there along their travels, if they already haven't. I don't think it will hurt to check things out, leave Stefan a little message on his list of names to let him know that we're tracking him." With one flick of her finger, the cap on her miniature vodka bottle flipped off of the top and landed across the room. She then brought the small neck to her lips and she took a swig of the sharp liquid and let it burn down her throat, loosening her body in order to soothe her over.

"The only question now is what are we going to do tonight?" Her Cheshire lips lifted upwards, her mocha gaze luring him towards her. She knew she had power over him, but it wasn't as though she was wilding it purposely to trap him in her snare. No, he was falling victim to her again at his own hand. She almost thought that maybe, just maybe he was after her because he wanted her instead of Elena, but Katherine knew she was mistaken. Why would he care enough about the woman that shattered his heart to want to follow her to the ends of the Earth and back? Katherine wasn't important even though she made herself out to be. She had made it perfectly clear that she was after Stefan and from the very start she had broken Damon's hopes and dreams of being with her. She had admired him for trying so hard to save her from the tomb even though she hadn't been in it, but none of his efforts had ever been enough. He truly was the brother that loved her too much, but wasn't that always what she wanted. He had her questioning her desires and she hated him for it. Stefan was the difficult option, maybe that was why she was so intent on having him because Damon would always be the easy option, but he had always shown his devotion, he had always given it willingly. Damon never required compulsion where Stefan needed coaxing to get her blood into his system. Damon had always been willing to spend the rest of his life with her so why had she chosen Stefan? Why was he the better option?... She was starting to doubt her resolve.

"But first, let's play a game of truth or lie. I'll ask you a question and you give me an answer. I'll judge it as a truth or as a lie and then, on penalty of death, you tell me which it is with full honesty. If my guess is wrong, then you can dare me to do whatever you want me to do and vice versa, but if either of us lie we jump from that balcony and plunge to a possible death at our own will knowing that we are solely responsible for our own passing. Sound like a deal to you?" She studied his eyes for a few moments, watching the contemplation float in his riveting orbs as he bounced around the deal in his head. She knew he was realizing that Katherine would never sacrifice her life for a little game and her word, though it meant nothing and held no real value, could be used to get her to give him straight answers. This was an opportunity for him to force her to open up about her life and finally give him the answers he was looking for. "There are no rules to my game Damon, no catches… well; actually I think it would be interesting if we limit this game to one question a piece. No question off limits, but you can get an answer you have been looking for, for centuries. So I'd suggest that you think carefully. And seeing as how, I already know what I want to ask you Damon, I'll go first. You answer me this question: why didn't you leave Damon? Why did you stay?"

**DAMON'S POV -**

Damon wondered how long he could keep up the charade that Katherine didn't mean anything to him. He was certain what he had just foolishly told her had tipped her off to the fact that the emotions he tried to desperately to suppress were bubbling up in the pit of his stomach again. _She's a liar and a self-centered bitch._ _Don't do this to yourself again,_ he told himself, but his advice was falling on deaf ears because he could already feel the magnetic pull that Katherine had over him. His crystal orbs shifted from the black screen to her as she stood there rigid in front of him. She had this look on her face he had never seen before and it puzzled him. "What the hell is that suppose to mean?" Damon snapped coolly at her response. She was talking like she was some sort of riddle writer, and the following statement didn't make much more sense. If she left for herself and not for Stefan, than what was the reason she had fled? They had shared an amazing night, one that Damon would always hold fondly in his heart no matter what happened and she bailed like it was a travesty. "Katherine…I don't understand you," he murmured, less defensive then. She caught him off guard when she walked over to him, getting down on her knees between his legs. His azure oceans latched on to her mocha gems as he listened to her, her words tugging on his heart strings and offering the hope he really didn't want to fall for. "I don't…Katherine…" he shook his head, trying to piece all this together.

Was she telling him what he wanted to hear, pulling him in like a fish on a hook so she could use him for something? Or was Katerina Petrova finally being sincere and honest with him? It was such a gamble, and Damon wasn't much of a betting man; yet he was willing to put everything on the line for her again and he hated it. "That's just it, Katherine…you're fickle," he stated. "How can I trust someone who one day loves my brother, but maybe the next day she wants me? A future with you can't be certain, and although I love your spontaneity, I don't like how careless you are with other people's feelings." _Namely mine._ "You only thing of yourself…and I get it…it's kept you alive for over the last five hundred years, but at what cost? You don't have anyone who really loves you or cares for you or trusts you as a friend." Sure he was fibbing some, because truthfully he still loved and cared for her and he probably always would…but he most certainly didn't trust her. "Yes I love Elena, but I'm getting tired of wanting things that I can never have and I'm coming to the point of acceptance where I realize Elena isn't mine and she never will be. She loves my brother, and she deserves him." He scoffed a little after that statement. "Well, she deserves the old him. The new one deserves to get his head knocked off a few times, but they're good for each other," he shrugged, refusing to answer if she was chasing the right brother or not.

It was an unfair question, and he wasn't about to ask her to vie for him instead of Stefan. She would make that choice on her own when she had sense enough to realize who the better fit for her was, and he wasn't going to convince her of it. That wasn't love, nor was that his job. Katherine didn't give him time to answer her final question before she got to her feat, sauntering over to the bar as she grabbed a bottle of vodka for each of them. He caught his gratefully, unscrewing the top as he placed the bottle to his lips and took a gulp of the clear fiery liquid. "Great, I knew I didn't like that guy…but now I really know," he added dryly, referring to the original Klaus. The information she divulged about Klaus and Stefan's relations caught Damon by surprise. He hadn't been around Stefan in the 20's, he had gone off on his own, and to learn that he had become best friends with Klaus and even started to fall for his sister surprised him. Maybe he didn't know his baby brother as well as he thought he did. Damon shot her an annoyed look as she rested her feet in his lap, her remark rubbing him the wrong way. "Katherine, you're not some prize to be fought over or for. If you want me, you'll choose me. I'm not going to win or beg for your affections. I've been there…I've done that, and in case you've forgotten it didn't end quite well for me. I'm tired of your games, they're exhausting." He knew he was being harsh with her, but he wanted her to know that he wasn't going to follow her around like a little pet and do what she wanted to prove his worth.

He already had in his eyes, several times over, and if she couldn't see that—it was her problem, not his. "But I am interested in getting him back to Elena because that is where he belongs. So yes, in that respect your plan is a good one. However I know how he is hopped on blood, and he's stubborn. If Klaus is truly making him return to his Ripper ways this isn't going to be easy, Kat. It may even be impossible," Damon reasoned, but they could contemplate ways to snap him out of it tomorrow. She was right; they needed something to do tonight—something that was going to relax him after that long drive. He raised his brow at her suggestion for, surprise, surprise, another game. Bringing the bottle to his lips he killed the rest of the vodka in the bottle with a soft sigh, placing the bottle on the side table as he looked over to her. It almost seemed like she wanted to tell him the truth, but this was the only fucked up way she knew how to—was him asking her a question, and her life as a penalty for lying. And even though he was a magnificent liar, Katherine was amazing at smelling bullshit and he knew he wouldn't be able to fool her and vice versa. "Fine Katherine, it's not like I have anything better to do," he smirked, chuckling a little under his breath. The fact this held no rules made him curious and more apt to play, though he was disappointed she was limiting this to one question. He listened to the one she asked, hating it right away. She wanted the truth and he didn't want to give it because it opened himself up to what he didn't want: heartbreak.

Damon let out a disgruntled mutter. "I stayed because I came here to see you. Stefan is just a side mission, Katherine. The moment you called I was anxious to see you, and so when you asked me here I didn't hesitate—I came. It would be a waste of trip to come here to spend time with you and then leave. I'm here because I wanted to be here with you," he finalized with a shrug as though it wasn't a big deal, but the reality was—it was. "Alright, my turn," he exclaimed with a cunning grin. "Are you scared to love me Katherine?" It was a simple question, but it was going to tell him a lot about her. For one, it was going to tell him whether or not she did love him or even wanted to, and then it was going to tell him if she had issues—which he had an inkling she did. Her journals that he snooped in only touched the surface of the iceberg of her life, and he was certain that a woman as closed off and jaded as she had something to make her such a bitter self serving bitch. He refused to believe someone would blossom into that type of person of their own free will. He knew that he was an asshole because of his reasons, and it certainly wasn't because he liked being one. Elena had made him realize that when she opened him up to doing good things, to feeling things, and for wanting to help others. He didn't want to be a monster but it was the easy way out. It was easier than being good in the face of adversity.

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

"That's the point love; you aren't supposed to understand me. No one is. I'm mysterious," she whispered. There would never come a day that Katherine wouldn't be playing some kind of a game. She had sworn to herself long ago that if the time came where she was forced to make the decision that dealt with her well being, it would be her against the world. She wasn't going to care enough to want to be with someone else or let someone understand her enough to get underneath her skin. She had so many layers and so many planted detours so that, if someone did come close, she would be able to ward them away. Granted, she had let Damon in a little too far for her comfort, but that was okay because he wasn't getting any further than she wanted him to get. Any information that he got his hands on had its source with her because she would not let anything out that she didn't want to let him know. Quite frankly, very few people understood her more than Elijah did. Not only had he had the opportunity to know her as a human, but he had loved her too and back then she had been very naïve and had given herself over to him in a way that had exposed her to Klaus. She was of the firm belief that Elijah's love, at the time, had only run so far and that his love for his family ran even deeper. She didn't realize it at the time, but she let him in quite further than she let Klaus in, Elijah knew her on a basis that no one else did. She hated herself for it too. She had trusted him and he had failed her. Maybe if she had better examples of love and trust she would have learned that not all people were as sick as the men that walked into her life back in her human years.

The examples weren't there so she spoke in riddles and preferred to be as much of an enigma as the crystal blue in Damon's eyes. "I never meant to hurt you if that's any consolation." She would give him that because it was the truth. She never went into anything with the intent of hurting someone, but she hadn't thought about it either. She was very self-absorbed and anything she did was out of gratification that would serve herself and no one else. She could see how he would misconstrue that as using him, but she had never consciously thought of it that way. Cutting off her humanity had cut off her empathy, her need for compassion, and her need for love. She could feel it creeping back into her mind as she spoke to Damon, opening up just enough to give him a taste of what he was searching for. She knew that he was after the whole pie, but she would never give it all to him even if she served him a dozen pieces, he would never see Katherine as a hole. She listened to him not because she felt that she owed him anything, but because she wanted to hear what he had to say, what was lurking in that mind of his. "Oh that's a nasty thing to say to me," she spat; highly offended that he would claim that no one loved her. "I have friends and I'll admit I've coerced most of them into owing me a debt, but there are people walking around on this Earth that would lay down their life for me knowing I wouldn't do the same for them. People do care about me; they just don't know that the feeling isn't returned."

So maybe she was a conniving bitch without a moral center, but at least she knew how to win. That was the most important thing, wasn't it? At least this way she couldn't die and that was the worst outcome imaginable for her. "Besides, just because I'm alone doesn't mean I'm lonely." That was true, for the most part. She liked being alone because she only had to take care of herself, but she did have a tendency to wrap people around her so that she didn't force herself to insanity with silence. She had lasted nearly two centuries without the man she was convinced that she loved enough to want to fight for, she had been alone for quite some time, but she never let it get to her. "I don't need companionship. That's my gift." She could survive. A lazy smile drifted on her lips as she took another little swig from the miniature vodka bottle, the liquid burning down her throat as he answered her question about Elena. She almost wanted to shout for joy that he had finally come to his senses, "And here I thought it would take you 150 years to figure out you didn't need her." She snickered, she knew that would hurt him, but what else was he to suspect of Katherine? She was a teaser and she always would be even if her words bordered on bullying, but she knew he could take it, at least, he had taken all of her abuse without consequence before. What would make this bite any different? And then she saw it, she saw the way her words reflected against the color of his eyes and how his lips tightened with tension and she could tell he wanted to say something, wanted to get up and walk away, but he didn't. He never did. If he really wanted to make her fight for him, he would get up and fucking walk away. He would make her want him, but he never did that. He always did the opposite of what she wanted him to do and that infuriated him because it was typical Damon, she expected it out of him; as contrary as all of that sounded.

Both of her dark eyebrows raised, her eyelids widening a little as she looked at him, surprise feigning over her features in something that was nearly genuine, but quite mocking. "It sounds like you are playing a game with me, sounds as though you are trying to tell me that you secretly want me to choose you, but you aren't willing to say it." She realized that he wasn't telling her what she wanted to hear for the same reasons that she wasn't about to go and open up to him—they were both scared of what would come if they did. They each had suffered great injury and neither was in the mood to get hurt again in the same way and that didn't make either of them a coward, it made them smarter than the average individual. Going through that pain again was as though they were willingly opting to go through self-mutilation of the heart. "Even if I did choose you, you would never forgive me. It would be like starting a fated relationship doomed to end at the very start." That was a fact because they both knew that Damon didn't have it in him to forgive her the wrong that she had caused him anymore than she had the nerve in her bones to actually come out and apologize for it. She didn't work that way and he didn't work that way. They were far too similar to get along with one another and that was the bottom line. Their relationship, whatever was there, would always remain physical until they both broke and she apologized and he forgave. And that was the process, she had to apologize first so that he would have the opportunity to forgive her of something she was truly sorry for, something she was asking his forgiveness for.

"Nothing is impossible if you just believe," she smiled at him playfully, like a little girl at Disneyland. She relaxed into the arm of the couch, one of the plush pillows offering her the back support she needed as she watched him carefully. It was clear that she as studying him and keeping a trained eye on the unconscious habits that let her know whether he was lying to her or telling her the truth. He wasn't happy with her question and she was certain the feeling would be mutual when she was given the question, but for now she was ringmaster and he was the storyteller. So her suspicions were true, he did want to see her and it made her feel good knowing that she was more important than his brother was to him; she probably shouldn't have thought about it that way, but she did. But before she could comment with her amusement, he came back at her with his question, leaving her no room for comment. Her eyebrows furrowed together and her mouth set into a line; of all the questions he had to ask, he had to ask the most impossible one. She had promised him the truth at the penalty of her own death and she knew he could read her… for the most part anyways, and lying was futile at this point. It was the truth or nothing at all. She couldn't run and she wouldn't fight, a deal was a deal and she has struck this bargain so it was time to see it through to its end. "It isn't so much a question of being scared to love you Damon, it's a question of being scared to love at all… but how can I give you an honest answer, if I don't have the answer myself?" It was a legitimate question, but she didn't need him to answer it because she had promised him more than answering a question with another question.

"The man that fathered my child, the last man that I allowed myself to truly love, I killed. I killed his wife, I slaughtered his daughters, one of their husbands, and their new-born baby. That kind of agony isn't what I wanted to feel for the rest of my immortal existence. I'm not scared of you Damon. I just don't want to love again. So, I guess, looking at the big picture, I am scared to love you as I am scared to love anyone else because my only true regret with my life was loving too much." It was a brutal answer and hard for her to face, but she said it, let each word drip off her tongue without breaking eye contact because she would not look weak in that moment with him. She was stronger and she could prove it. "You never knew me as a human being and I was one, once upon a time and even though you have a tendency to forget, I do have the capacity to feel." She then took the last swig of the clear liquor and got to her feet. "Fuck you Damon," she growled, walking away from him and over to the balcony before chucking the glass bottle as hard as she could and she watched it disappear into the darkened sky. She didn't care where it landed or if someone got hurt because of it, she was angry; that was an emotion, wasn't it? Katherine then hoisted herself up onto the steel railing; her balance was impeccable, her skill something to be admired. "Would you be like Jack Dawson and try to convince me not to jump?" She saw romance and irony in her reference to Titanic and the scene where Rose is dangling over the butt of the ship, ready to let go, ready to drop into icy waters.

Katherine looked out over the edge at the street below. The cars were like ants and she could see bobs of heads, but only because she was a vampire. She had never attempted a jump from this high, but it looked fun. With one swift motion, she twisted herself around on the thin railing on one foot so that she could face the room and inevitably face Damon. She lifted her arms and puffed out her chest; throwing back her head slightly almost as though she was going to do a back-flip off of the edge of a diving board. "You wanted to see me Damon Salvatore, so here I am!" She raised her voice slightly, letting her words catch onto the wind and carry over it to get to him. "I dare you to push me over. I'm a fucking damn good liar." She was revolting like a rebelling teenager and even if she knew her actions were childish, foolish even, she didn't stop herself because she was naturally impulsive. Every word had been the truth even if she had covered them up slightly to make it sound more complicated than it actually was. She was scared to love again, but she was definitely more fearful of Damon than she was Stefan. Stefan was the safe answer because Katherine knew that he would love her and never leave her whereas Damon had the capacity to love her and then leave her. She didn't want to be left. She was scared to love him, she had always been scared to love him because she knew, from the very start, from the time they first locked eyes on each other, that he was the one that she wanted. And that terrified her.


	4. Damon's Decision

**DAMON'S POV -**

Damon waited for Katherine to reply, anxiously awaiting her response but he didn't let the eagerness cross his stone features. He listened to her intently, trying to decipher whether or not it was another line or if it was the truth. But he could see it in her eyes, he could the shields drop and for once he knew Katherine wasn't feeding him a story, she was telling the truth. The story of her past love actually tugged at whatever heartstrings he had left, making him realize that Katherine truly had a heart and soul once. It was just buried deep inside; concrete covered after all the pain she had been through in her life. She was scared to love at all because of the pain, yet she readily caused others it. He wondered if it was a game to her now, who was going to devastate who first? As long as her heart was safe, obviously she didn't care who's got broken. He wanted to know so much more, but she had only agreed to one question. But Damon wanted answers. He wanted to know if she killed this man on purpose, this man and his family. Was she really that cruel, or was it an accident? Did she have her reasons? He always thought he knew Katherine better than Stefan, he felt like he knew her better than anyone in the world, but now he knew that he didn't. This woman in front of him was almost a stranger, a closed flower; her heart hidden by petals that refused to blossom. She had stories that she hadn't shared, pain she hadn't let go of, and he wanted so badly to be the person to heal her, to help her, and he didn't even know why.

Why did he want to subject himself to that type of disaster? He watched as she pushed herself up from the sofa, anger tensing her body as she moved to the balcony; flinging the glass bottle off the roof. He shook his head a little bit, rising to his feet as she started playing gymnast on the railings. He looked at her with worry, fearing she'd do something stupid and let go. He knew she was enamored with herself and probably wouldn't gamble with her own life, but he couldn't help but wonder. She liked big shows, and she would probably take this as far as she could and that irritated him. "Stop it Katherine." Damon was firm with her, his icy hues latching on to her frame as she hung over the side wildly, using just the strength of her legs to stay there. Before she knew what he was doing, he was at the edge of the balcony; his strong arms wrapped around her waist as he gazed up into her umber optics. "You're not as strong as you think you are, Katherine," he whispered softly, almost tenderly. "It's a nice act, this invincible thing you have going on, but you can still be broken." He pulled her then, bringing her on to the other side of safety as he led her back inside the apartment. "Enough games for tonight, I think we should go to sleep since we're gonna have a big day tomorrow," Damon insisted. After calling room service, he compelled them to get rid of the bodies without getting caught; tending to it to make sure that they weren't. By the time he came back Katherine was fast asleep in the plush bed. He always cleaned up her messes, but had instigated her so he supposed he owed her that; at least that once.

He slept on the sofa, and in the morning he showered; rinsing off the dirt and grime of his trip before he changed into a pair of clean clothes and shoes. Katherine took longer to get ready than he did, but she looked impeccable by the time she was done. From there he let her drive over to where Stefan's apartment was. The twenties weren't and era that he was familiar with, at least when it came to his brother. He read about his ripping ways in the paper, but avoided him at all costs; spending most of his time trying to find a way to release Katherine from the tomb that would be faster than waiting for a comet. That thought agitated him again, but he was having problems letting it go. "So this is it, huh?" He asked as they walked up some stairs. He shoved the door open, the force of his shoulder doing the trick as they walked inside. It looked dusty, yet lived in recently. "What's this wall you're talking about?" He inquired, following her to what looked like a shelf of alcohol. "Okay, we're not here to party, Kat," he muttered glumly. But instead she shifted the wall, revealing a secret door to a closet. "Oh…" he mused with a smirk as though he knew that all along. He walked up behind Katherine, his chest pressing into her back as they peered to the right at the long list of names there. He couldn't help but notice their father's name was first on the list.

His stomach twisted and churned, and then the pain of agony jabbed him from the back causing him to gasp out loud. "Katherine," he groaned; the only warning he could manage as the splinter of wood rubbed against the muscular lining of his heart. Then again! "ARRRGHHH!" He yelled out, another stake going through his right side as he kept his arms barred around Katherine so they couldn't get to her. He wasn't sure if they wanted him, both of them, or Katherine. That or the tricky fourth option: they thought she was Elena. He felt a little useless as he turned to defend the both of them, the wood digging into the muscle keep him alive as he managed to snap one of the guys' necks. There was three of them, but by the time he lunged for the second one he dropped to the floor in excruciating pain; coughing up blood. He tried to lift his arm to pry the stakes from his chest, but it was futile; any movement sent them burrowing deeper into the skin and muscle. He watched helplessly from the ground, Katherine taking action as the grunts and groans echoed in his ears from the other men. They may have been men, but they clearly weren't older than Katherine because she was conquering them without hassle. It wasn't long until the other two were dead, scattered around the apartment. "Kath-erine," Damon groaned in a raspy broken voice. "Are you okay?" He asked, making sure she was alright; though he wasn't sure why he cared—he was sure she was fine.

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

Katherine loved to play her games, probably too much, but it was really the only thing that she could think of that would distract Damon from what she had just said. She didn't want him to perceive her in a way that was opposite of what she wanted him to see. Katherine was strong and independent and though she did have the capacity to feel, she didn't want anyone else knowing that. Granted, she had opened herself up to the injury and she could have done something else to get him to open up to her, but it had been the best option at the time for her. She couldn't hate him for taking the liberty that he had with her, but she could hate herself and risk her own life to distract him from what she had just said. She had never opened up to anyone about her life and she had no interest in recounting those stories; they were dead and buried. The majority of her existence had been spent as though she was riding on the wind without a care in the world for anyone else, but she was so convinced that she had done enough caring as a human and where had that got her? Pregnant, disowned, nearly dead… how much could love offer if it only had heartbreak to give? Her idea of love was twisted because, for her, love didn't exist. It was a chemical reaction of the bodies that released a physical need to be with someone. She could say she loved Stefan all she wanted to, but the fact of the matter was that her love, wasn't the same love that everyone else experienced. She would never love to the extent that Elena did, she would never love anyone enough to sacrifice her life for them.

So, as she dangled on the railing, it wasn't a matter of falling over for her, it was a matter of whether or not Damon would push her over or save her from a death that only he could cause her. She was giving him a hand that she had never given to anyone else before. She could have even construed her decision to a sway of real love, that love only heard about in fairytales, but she didn't know what it was. It could have all been her love to play with Damon's head because she knew she could always get a reaction out of him. Her knees bent slightly as a means to keep herself balanced and her weight as even as possible. Being a vampire wasn't fool-proof, she could easily make a miscalculation or some outside force like a bird could come whizzing by and create just the right distraction to send her falling over the edge, but leave it to Damon to make sure that she was safe. His arms tightened around her waist before she could even blink and instead of gearing to push her over and enact the revenge she was offering him, his arms latched around her to make sure that nothing and no one could harm her. She tilted her head down slightly, her chocolate eyes coming in contact with his silky hair before he looked up into her eyes. One of her hands went to the side of his face, her fingers gently lacing through the dark strands of his hair as if she was his lover and not some bitch he hated. She tenderly cradled the back of his head with the palm of her hand, holding him as he whispered to her, before pulling her from the railing and then letting her slide down his body until her feet were safely on the floor.

Her shirt had bundled up slightly, exposing her stomach and she carefully pulled away from him with the excuse of needing to pull it back down so it wouldn't wrinkle. Katherine wanted to say something, but he didn't let her. He was then escorting her back into the hotel room with the suggestion that sleep was important even though she couldn't have given a rat's ass about it. She didn't like that he was now, ever so suddenly, being able to see right through her. For so long her façade had been a one-way mirror that she could only look out of, but it was as if someone had switched the lights in the opposite room so that now he was the one looking in and she was naked on the other side. It made her uncomfortable, but she couldn't bring herself to protest or say anything when she knew that he was right. She wasn't as strong as she thought she was, but she sure as hell wasn't going to stop with her act; however, his words about her being broken, struck her hard. She went directly to the bedroom and pulled off her clothes before sliding into a silk number that was more comfortable than it was meant to be sexual. She didn't like this idea of being seen so she decided then to flip the light back into her favor so that she could shroud herself in darkness. She didn't want to be discovered and least of all by Damon Salvatore, but then why not him? Katherine wasn't really worried that he would use the information against her in a public way, maybe in a private way between the two of them, but otherwise he wouldn't mention it unless they were alone. In that way she trusted him, but just as unusual as that feeling was, she found herself lazily thinking about him as she drifted off to sleep in between the covers of the bed. To this day, he was taking care of her and she wanted to know if he was doing it on purpose or if it was some unconscious habit that he couldn't resist.

When she woke up the next morning, she showered and took careful time getting herself ready. She wasn't perfect, she had to make herself that way so she spent time taming her wild curls into soft waves and then doing her make-up so that she wasn't completely bare. She didn't need it and she knew she didn't, but she liked to be presentable… even though the real reason for her change was the man that was waiting for her outside of the bathroom door. She was getting ready to be seen by Damon and no one else really though she was sure others would be looking. She fit into some skinny jeans and a tailored blouse just perfectly before she went out to be greeted by the sight of a well groomed Damon Salvatore. A smile slithered its way onto her lips, "You never did give me an answer, when did you get so hot?" She purred like a kitten as she sauntered by him and out of the hotel room. She had called down for a cab earlier so when they got outside of the hotel room, there was one waiting for them. It didn't take too long to get to Stefan's old apartment complex and then they were up at the door. She nodded to Damon and then made a motion to the door, "Care to be a gentleman and open the door?" She snickered, a little as Damon used the force of his shoulder to snap the door off of its alignment in order to open it for them. "Someone has been here," she mused, cocking her head towards Damon before walking over to the shelf of alcohol. With a flick of her wrist the shelf pushed back and she opened up the wall, "Voila."

She had already seen the wall, but she was interested to know if anyone had been added to the list since she had seen it last and there had been quite a few additions. She could feel Damon pressing up against her so she pressed back, eager to feel the warmth of him against her, "Stefan has been a very busy boy." She rolled her eyes, tapping at the end of the list, "Those are fresh, the ink looks new." Katherine was so focused that she didn't hear the footsteps coming into the room, she didn't even sense another presence until she felt Damon's weight lean heavily on her and a painful groan escaped his mouth. She made a move to turn around, but Damon secured his arms around her and she knew the only way to stop him was to break his arms and she didn't feel like that was necessary. She had the upmost faith in him, but that was before she knew where the first stake had punctured him. When he turned around, she followed the motion, but he was standing completely in front of her and then he lunged for the closest vampire and managed to kill him, but he fell to the ground, coughing up blood. "Is that really the only way you know how to fight your battles? Stab a man with his back turned to you?" She growled, a snarl ripping from her throat as she charged towards both men. The first one was easy enough, one little snap of the neck and he was on the ground and she was using his own stake to pierce through his heart. The next vampire was a little older, more skilled, but Katherine was better. He managed the tip of a vervain laced stake across her stomach, cutting her blouse, her blood rimming to the top of the cut before he used her hesitation against her and punched her along the side of her jaw. "Never hit a lady," she snapped, grabbing the vampire's arm and twisting it unnaturally at the wrist before pushing hard, sending the stake deep into his heart.

She huffed a little, tucking several strands of her hair behind her ears as she got down onto her knees at Damon's side. "I'm fine, it's you I'm worried about… stay still," she ordered. Katherine grabbed the length of both stakes in her hands and pulled hard and quick, sending another painful tide throughout Damon's body. "I'm sorry," she whispered, tossing the stakes onto the floor before she lifted Damon's head up and moved herself behind him, resting his head against her lap. "Take more than you need, you'll heal faster." She didn't give her blood to anyone unless she was siring someone or using her blood in a diabolical way to meet her own ends, but this, this was different. She was willingly given her blood to Damon in order to heal him, in order to save his life though she was pretty sure that he wouldn't actually die. She brought her left wrist up to his mouth, "If you want it, take it." she urged, not willing to run and get him any human blood. She felt his mouth wrap around her flesh and then his sharp teeth dug into her flesh until they punctured into her vein. Her precious blood flowed into his mouth steadily and she felt her energy drain as he took her blood; if they were to get attacked again she wasn't sure how much help she would be unless she fed soon. He had taken her blood last night and now today again and she had yet to feed herself to replenish the blood supply she had lost, but he was more important to her now, she didn't mind.

By the time he was finished, her stomach had healed itself over and she made him wait until his wounds had closed before she let him get back to his feet with her help. "Why did you do that? You could have gotten yourself killed trying to protect me!" Katherine wasn't happy with his decisions. She was the stronger vampire here, she could have taken all three of them on if he had only stepped aside, but oh no, he had to go and get himself staked for a second time just for good measure. She didn't want him to do that for her, she didn't want him to sacrifice himself for her, she didn't want him to experience any pain for her. He had already been through enough of that to have the pain pumping through his veins instead of blood and yet he had tried to defend her. He still cared. "I don't need you or anyone trying to keep me safe, I can take care of myself Damon." That was her not so subtle way of telling him that she cared too. She didn't want him to hurt for her anymore, especially if she wasn't the one causing the pain. She rolled her eyes at him, "I need something to drink." She didn't even bother looking at him, she just stomped out of the room, her heels clicking at the floor. She went to the room across from Stefan's apartment and knocked. When the door opened, there was a middle-aged man on the other side, he looked like a drunk, but Katherine wasn't looking for quality she was looking for quantity and he had just the right amount of blood to satisfy her. **"Can I help you?"** He said, his eyes on her boobs, not focused on her eyes. "Yes, you can. You can die for me." She muttered, lunging at him. Her fangs plunged into his neck with the velocity and ferociousness of a lioness, his blood pouring into her mouth like a waterfall. His body fell to the floor and hers fell with his and she drank until there wasn't an ounce of blood left in him.

When she stood, blood was dribbling off of her chin and she was wiping it away with the back of her hand and with her tongue. "It was never your choice you know? Choosing me was never your choice. I was very well aware of what I was doing to you, the power I had over you, and I used you because I wanted you around and I won't let you die for me Damon, I won't let you die period." She turned to face Damon who was standing in the threshold of the door with a look on his face that she couldn't read. "But you are right, I can be broken and watching you die would certainly break me so don't you ever get in the way of anything sharp and pointy for me again. Don't you dare defend me; let's not forget that I'm stronger than you." Her eyes were sharp as she pushed by him and made her way back into Stefan's apartment. She bent down and searched the pockets of each vampire until one offered up a wallet. She flipped it open and shook her head, "This wasn't Klaus. He wouldn't send weaklings to do a job like this unless… unless he thought that you would bring Elena… in which case, three vampires should have done the trick. The boy you killed was just that, a boy. Nineteen years old… probably changed two years ago." Katherine shook her head and tossed the wallet onto the boy's dead body. "Well, looks like Stefan will have a surprise waiting for him and we need to leave before another surprise guest walks through that door."

**DAMON'S POV -**

Damon felt pretty useless as he lied on the floor in agony. It was the man's job to protect the ones he cared about, and yet Katherine was always going to have the upper hand no matter how much human blood he fed on. She was older, and therefore had the advantage. He was thankful for her though, grateful that she had saved him by annihilating the men that had attacked them; though he was still trying to figure out the reason. His concern was with Katherine, only further proving to himself that he was submitting to his emotions. He was weak, and he loathed himself for being unable to fight what was taking place more aggressively. He was in anguish, but even he couldn't overlook the fact that she had actually admitted to being worried for him. He cringed when she told him to stay still, because he knew what was coming and just the slight pressure from her hand wrapping around the stakes was enough to send him groaning. He let out a yell as she yanked them loose, tossing them to the floor as his crystal orbs latched on to hers. "It's okay," he murmured in a strained voice, allowing her to manipulate his weak body so that he was laying in her lap. He looked up at her, wondering if she was angel or if she was just doing this out of obligation so they could leave. He wanted to believe it was because she cared, because there really was goodness in her. He could still remember the way she looked at him last night, the way she touched his face when he pulled her over the balcony's edge. Surely that meant something, didn't it?

He raised his brow when she offered her blood, pressing her wrist to his mouth generously. He didn't even have enough energy to take her arm in his hands, so instead he opened his mouth; spider veins webbing out beneath his eyes as they eclipsed in a dark crimson. His fangs sliced through her hard skin, breaking the barrier as the red life force gushed into his awaiting mouth. Just a few gulps in and he could already feel strength returning to his body while it diminished hers. He grasped her arm then, his lips greedily closing around the wound he had created as he sucked on her like he would a straw in a drink. He pulled away from her when he knew he had drank enough, sitting there as he waited for it to take effect. Damon's wounds slowly started to heal, the pain gradually subsiding. "Thank you," he told her as she helped him to his feet. "For helping me." His eyes narrowed on her as she started chastising him. He shrugged. "So what? I wanted to help you," Damon retorted, getting irritated with her attitude. He sighed as she walked away from him, watching as he she crossed the hall and preyed on Stefan's neighbor. He watched the animalistic way she burrowed her teeth into the man's neck; pinning him to the floor as she drained him dry. It made Damon hot all over, as he licked his lips; warding away the excitement that was developing in his pants as she waltzed back over to him. His eyes hardened instantly, his jaw tightening at her words. She always had to ruin a moment. They would take one step forward and then three steps back.

She just didn't like caring, she didn't like being nice, anytime she said something remotely kind she had to follow it up by something bitchy and he hated that about her. However despite the fact that what she was saying was irritating him, he brushed it off and didn't dignify it with an answer. The fact she said she wouldn't let him die was enough to make him hope and believe that she was putting on another front. Though Damon wasn't entirely sure why he kept digging, kept wanting to see something worth latching on to and chasing again. He wasn't a man to chase. He hadn't been in a very long time, but Katherine had this way of dictating everything that he did. Sometimes he didn't even realize that she had taken over him, sinking her nails into his skin so he couldn't get away. Both women he wanted were unobtainable, but he had convinced himself he wouldn't be happy with anyone else. It was either Elena or Katherine, and he had to choose who he was really going to fight hard for and he really didn't know. All he did know was he had made a seventeen hour drive just to be with Katherine, just to see her, and the majority of his reason had nothing to do with the fact that he was on an expedition to find his brother or the fact that Elena would've wanted him to come. He leaned casually against the wall, watching as she dug into the wallets of the dead men lying on the floor. "I'm certain he probably thought you were going to be her. I mean, she is what he wants after all," he reasoned with a sigh.

He was stupid to leave Elena alone in Mystic Falls unprotected; with just Alaric, vampire Barbie, and little witch to look after her. He was highly more capable, yet here he was…gallivanting around Chicago with Katherine. Oddly, no regrets, other than the worry that Elena was safe and sound. "I agree, lets get out of here," he affirmed with a nod, following behind her as they moved down the stairs and out the glass door. It was later that evening when darkness had blanketed the Chicago streets that Damon suggested they go out hunting together. When Katherine agreed he let the unnatural speed of his legs carry him outside of city limits as he chased after Katherine once more, enjoying the thrill as he followed her scent through the dark trees. They had been trying to decide their next plan of action but kept coming up empty handed which is why Damon suggested they feed. He had taken a hefty amount of blood from her and he knew one man wasn't going to replace the amount. Damon stopped short in a tiny clearing when he realized he couldn't see Katherine anymore, nor could he see her. "Katherine," he called out, his crystal hues narrowing on the dark row of trees as he tried to catch a flicker of movement. That's when he heard the howl of a wolf, followed by the scream of Katherine. She wasn't one to cry out in pain, she was much too prideful for that, and that's why he knew this was bad. He moved swiftly, darting between the tall frames of wood before he reached Katherine who was slumped over next to a bush, blood oozing from her arm where she had bit bitten.

"Katherine," Damon gasped as he lowered himself down to her, picking her up in his arms. Thankfully they had managed to eat a couple of campers before this happened, otherwise he knew she was really screwed; although the situation looked quite dismal regardless. The only cure for a wolf bite was the blood of Klaus and he was certain he had something to do with this. As if on cue, Stefan came out from the shadowed edge as he cradled Katherine in his arm. He could already see her wound necrosing and decaying, further confirming that this wasn't an ordinary wolf bite, but a werewolf bite instead. "Stefan…fancy meeting you here," Damon said through gritted teeth. In that moment he wondered if rescuing his brother was even worth it, because his worry of Elena ceased in the moment that Katherine became damaged. Now she was the only thing he was thinking about. **"Hello Brother. I'm here to deliver a message to you. Bring Elena to Klaus tomorrow night at the Whickery Bridge or he won't give you the blood to cure Katherine. Now you get to make your final choice. Who do you really love more? Elena…or Katherine? You could let Katherine die and have Elena to yourself, finally. We both know that's what you wanted the moment you found out that Katherine wasn't in that tomb. After all, we both know you've wanted her dead for a long time. Or you can save Katherine, putting Elena in danger; knowing that Katherine won't appreciate it and she definitely won't pay you back for it."**

Damon's gaze drifted down to look at Katherine, doubt seeping into his head in that moment. Stefan was right, he had always wanted her dead and he loved Elena and he wanted to be with her. This could be his defining moment. "What is wrong with you? You need to go eat some bunnies Stefan, O negative has gone to your head," he smirked, cracking a sarcastic smile. Honestly though he was a little surprised with how manic his brother was acting. He seemed like he didn't even care if Elena lived or died, and he knew he didn't care about Katherine. **"Tomorrow night, Whickery Bridge,"** Stefan repeated, disappearing into the night. "Come on, lets get out of here," he whispered lowly under his breath. It took him a little longer than normal to get back to their hotel room, but finally he made it, lying Katherine down on the bed. He found her suitcase, opening it as he began to pile her belongings inside. He had made his choice. He was going to save Katherine. It didn't seem logical, no. But she had saved his life when he got bitten, and she could've just left Mystic Falls and never looked back. It was the least he could do for her, and then he hoped she would be honorable enough to help him rescue Elena and Stefan—or at least Elena. He couldn't just let the innocent mortal die, he did love her still.

"You're going to start hallucinating Katherine, so we need to leave for Mystic Falls now. I'll have to lock you in a basement cellar when we get there, just so you don't hurt yourself, alright?" He told her. He moved around the room in blurred flashes, not stopping until everything was packed up and ready to go. Then he was gentle as he moved Katherine down to Camaro, and the two took off into the remaining darkness; hoping to make it to Mystic Falls by noon the following day. Most the time Katherine was writhing in agony, laying down in the passenger seat, and by the time they did make it—she was asleep finally, exhaustion having settled in. He left their bags for the time being, pulling her gingerly out of the seat as he went inside and took her downstairs to a cellar. He left her on the bench there that would serve as a bed, gathering some blankets and pillows before he returned; setting it up for her before lying her back down. "Katherine, do you want blood?" He asked her. All he had was blood bags but it would have to suffice, he wasn't going to bring a human to her now that they were back home. "What do you need? Tell me and I'll do it for you," he told her, knowing that he had to call Elena soon. He wasn't going to be luring her into a trap. He couldn't very well admit to her that he was going to be taking her to Klaus. It hurt him that he had to lie but he also knew that it was the only way.

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

Katherine wasn't happy that Damon had stepped over a boundary that he shouldn't. She was older than him which didn't just make her stronger than him, but all of her abilities were more powerful than his. She could heal faster than he could; she could move faster than he could, it was all a part of who genetic make-up and he needed to see that before he got himself killed. "Don't confuse my anger with my gratitude, I am thankful that you care enough to want to protect, but I don't need you to look after me. I've been doing that since I was fifteen years old and that was a long ass time ago." She was the one that, after having her baby, had been kicked to the sidewalk and tossed into a new country without anyone to turn to and without any resources to get herself on her feet. She supposed that her cunning and manipulative mind had started to develop there. "Just, next time, ask me if I want your help." She was trying to let him off of the hook here and he wasn't seeing it that way. She wanted him to be able to move on with his life without feeling any obligation to her whatsoever. He didn't owe her anything, even if he did care about her, that didn't automatically make him the person who wore the pants in their relationship… whatever this relationship was. She knew that there was something going on between them, but she couldn't place exactly what it was. It was like they were playing that same courting game that they had when they first met except this time it was more complex. Back then they had been on a blank slate then and now they had a history and it was one they couldn't erase.

"Oh yes, I know very well what he wants. Let's not forget that I was once in her shoes, but I was smarter than her." Katherine started out the door, "I got out as soon as I found out what he wanted from me. I offered her the same escape, but she passed it up. Foolish little girl." After they left the apartment, Damon suggested that they feed under the cover of night and Katherine readily agreed, she was starving. Giving Damon her blood had really drained her and that drunkard really wasn't enough to calm down her insatiable appetite and, at least with Damon, she knew she could get away with killing innocent people. She knew that with Stefan she wouldn't get that luxury, but Damon was a vampire of a different kind, very similar to Katherine herself. She could see the goodness in him brought on by Elena, but he was also as fiendishly evil as Katherine was. Their devilish ways weren't on the level of Klaus', not nearly as bloodthirsty, but the two of them had their own way of doing things and she loved that about him. She loved that she could be who she truly was with him and that he wouldn't judge her… well mostly anyways. She was getting too comfortable with him which wasn't setting well with her. She was so certain of wanting Stefan and all Damon's presence was doing for her was confusing her. She found herself in that same familiar lopped cycle that she had been caught in before, that never-ending circle of loving both Stefan and Damon and not wanting to get rid of either one of them, but she didn't want to fall back there. She only wanted one of them and now the question as which one.

She trailed Damon along after her, running because she loved to be chased by a man that sent butterflies filtering in her belly, but what she loved more was disappearing and making said man wonder where she could be. She had just helped herself to two campers and was hiding behind one of the trees, peering into the clearing from the cover of the tall bark of the tree when she heard a twig snap behind her. Katherine sensed the danger and as she whipped around, she realized that she was too late to save herself. She felt the pain take hold of her arm as several razor sharp teeth bore down into her flesh, her blood oozing out as she let out a blood curdling scream. Her head snapped to the side to look at her arm and there he was, a large wolf with eyes that looked so intent on ripping her arm from her body, but then he let go of her and her body fell limp to the floor as the wolf ran away, ready to find himself another kill. Katherine could feel the venom spread throughout her entire body, her heart pumping it through her veins so quickly that the effects slammed into her like a freight train. She couldn't really focus on anything other than the sight of her arm and how, even after having drained three humans that day alone, she could feel so weak. She had never felt this way before, not even when she stabbed herself and begged for death as a human, no, this was a completely new sensation, but the worst part was that he knew there was no hope for her. This was it; there was no way she was going to get around being bit by a werewolf. She was a goner and there was nothing that she could do and certainly nothing that Damon could do to make this situation any better. Klaus wouldn't help her and even if he did it would only be to make her death 500 years long as he had promised her before. She wouldn't trade her life in for him and it was there, as she lay helpless on the forest floor that she knew that she was going to die.

She felt an overwhelming sense of calm take over her body because, even though she had been fighting to live for so long, she had prepared herself to die. She heard her name fall from familiar lips and then the warmth of Damon's touch as he lifted her into his arms and she found herself grateful that, for once in her life, she might have someone there to care for her as she died. She groaned, falling against him, every appendage falling limp in his arms. When she heard Stefan's name her senses peaked enough to listen and she knew then, after Stefan had said his words, that she really didn't care for him anymore. He wasn't the man that she had convinced herself that she loved and here he was willing to let her die and he was probably a key factor in her death as well and she couldn't love a man who would see her dead. After all, true love only exists if it is returned. And then Katherine heard the price for her life and tears started to line her closed eyelids because she knew that Damon wouldn't sacrifice Elena's life to save her own. Elena was far too precious a piece of Damon's puzzle, the center of his heart as it were, and she knew she was no longer as important to him as she once had been. The realization caused an ache in her heart not so much an ache for her life as it was a longing to be loved enough by one man. That was all that Katherine had ever wanted.

Katherine really didn't understand anything that happened after that. She was so consumed with the pain that and yet everything was so still even though she knew she was writhing in the car like there was something inside of her taking control of her body. That's when the flashbacks started. She could feel the contractions as they she was experiencing them in that moment, the pain of childbirth well and alive in her body and then nothing at all. She could see her mother lifting the child up and all of that pain had been so worth it. "A girl?" Katherine mumbled under her breathe, "Please mother, let me see her." She thought for a moment she was lifting her arms, but she wasn't sure, her head snapped to the left at the sound of her father's voice and then her mother was taking her daughter away. "Let me at least hold her once…just once…at least once…" She could hear her baby's cries and tears started to fall down her cheeks; she just wanted to hold her once. "Father, please! No, father... no!" She could feel her mother against her, holding her back and she collapsed into the woman's arms. "No, mother, please…" She didn't want to let her go, "Please, Mama…" Her words trailed, every one spoken in Bulgarian, that native tongue that she hardly used at all. The next moment she snapped out of it, the blur of scenery giving her a headache as she turned towards Damon. "Are you ready to find out who I am?" She questioned, knowing very well that she was going to divulge more than she wanted to.

Another hour went by before the next hallucination started. "You're meant to catch me," Katherine smiled, Elijah's face as clear as day within the crevices of her mind. "Klaus promised to spend the day with me, but he never returned home from the night." Disappointment was clear in her voice, "He's a very charming man… hard for any woman to resist I suppose," she shook her head a little, "I know not why he called me." Her voice distinctly lined with a British accent grew hoarse the further she went along, "He seems to not care about me at all… Is it wrong to want more?" Elijah sat down before her and she looked down slightly confused, "Trevor believes that he loves me, but true love is not real unless it is returned. You agree?" Her face tightened, "That is too sad for me to accept my Lord; life is too cruel, if we cease to believe in love, why would we want to live?" Katherine felt her body shift and she snapped out of it, Damon lulling her back to consciousness and she nodded her head knowing, if she didn't' get locked away, she would go on a rampage. He settled her down on the bench and her gaze drifted down to her arm then looked at his, "So that's what a werewolf bite looks like?... It's not that bad." Her chocolate gaze drifted to Damon's eyes, "So that's it? You're just going to die?" Katherine shook her head, "A hundred and forty five years?... No last goodbye?" She leaned down for him and grabbed him by the neckline of his shirt, "Don't… don't leave mad." Katherine's eyes focused again and she snapped out of it, but not quite and in response to his question, she could only muster the truth, "I don't want an eternity alone…"

**DAMON'S POV -**

It was hard for Damon to decipher whether or not Katherine was hallucinating or speaking to him. Parts of what she was saying seemed vaguely familiar; long lost memories that he had closed up and left behind or stored away. The rest was a puzzle to him, pieces to her life he didn't recognize or see. When she reached up and grabbed his collar he bent down to be close to her, his hand cupping the side of her face as his thumb brushed over the apple of her cheek. "Katherine I'm not leaving you, it's going to be okay," he whispered to her. He sat down beside her on the bench, knowing that he wasn't going to be able to leave to get in touch with Elena. Damon didn't like this situation. He had already made his choice, he was choosing to save Katherine in hopes that she would help him rescue Elena and Stefan afterward but he couldn't even be certain she would do that. After all, she was Katherine and it was exactly like Stefan said. She was selfish and there was a big chance she wouldn't feel like she owed him anything at all. However his feelings for her was enabling him to take that risk, and so he held her close as he pulled out his cell phone from his pocket; dialing Elena. **"Damon?"** Her voice was echoing faintly from the receiver. **"Where have you been, I've been worried sick!"** She exclaimed. "I'm sorry," he told her. "I got word on the whereabouts of Stefan and so I went to investigate. It was too dangerous to take you along," he lied. His stomach knotted uncomfortably. He loved Elena, and doing this to her was the worse betrayal that he could ever put her through.

It was even worse than snapping her brother's neck out of jealousy, rejection, and anger. "I need you to come over here so I can tell you all about it. I have a plan to get him back, but it won't be easy," he continued on. **"I'll be right over,"** she told him, hanging up. He looked at the screen of his phone, resting it at his side as he looked down at Katherine. Elena was there for him in his moment of death, and now he was here for Katherine. It's like they had come full circle in a sense, yet that wasn't offering him any source of comfort. All he could keep thinking about was what if Klaus didn't keep his word? What if he really lost Katherine forever? He had emotionally detached himself from her, yes-and it hurt. But he had never lost her for good. She wouldn't be staked. She wouldn't be able to come back, and he couldn't imagine a world where Katherine didn't exist as much as he spoke about killing her, he knew he never would. He certainly didn't want someone else doing it, especially with Stefan as an accomplice in Klaus' sick, twisted game. "Katherine I'm going to take care of you, you're not going to die," he whispered tenderly to her, not even knowing if she was lucid or not. He placed his lips to the crown of her head. "I have to go, just for a little while. Stay here and know I'll come back to you," Damon spoke tenderly, as he got up from her side. He helped her lay down, resting her head on the pillow he had brought her before he escaped the cell; locking it behind him before he went upstairs. Elena arrived shortly after, breaking through the door to the hallway as she ran up to him; her hands grasping either side of his face.

He found it hard to look in her eyes, knowing that he was about to destroy her. "Elena...don't..." he said, pulling her hands down away from him as his crystal orbs met hers. **"What? What's wrong?"** She asked him puzzled. **"Damon, I'm over what happened...you don't need to act weird around me,"** she told him, referring to their kiss and the night she was locked into the cellar. "Yeah you might be, but I'm not." He was being short with her, and he knew she didn't deserve it, but he couldn't help it. **"Oh..."** she said faintly, trailing off as her gaze dropped to the ground. "I'm sorry Elena, I'm just stressed. Listen, Stefan said he was going to meet us at Whickery Bridge. He misses you, but he's still bound to Klaus. He wants to see you though." Damon knew this would be enough to bait her, enough to willingly get her to the bridge in less than an hour. **"Are you serious?"** She exclaimed, her eyes lighting up with hope that she had no idea was false. "Yes, I'm serious," he responded, forcing a small smile. "Come on, lets get over there," he said, grabbing his keys as they walked out to his car. Thankfully his and Katherine's luggage was still concealed in the trunk so Elena wouldn't know he had company. The moment she was in he sped away, praying to whoever would listen that this would work. The drive was silent, filled with all the words he wanted to say to Elena but couldn't and she seemed to amped up to see Stefan to notice his unusual silence. When they reached the bridge Damon pulled over to the side of the road, seeing his baby brother in the middle of the bridge as he peered down into the water.

He knew that Klaus was probably lurking in the woods nearby with witches and other vampires as backup. **"Stefan!"** Elena cried out in acclamation as she ran toward him, running straight for the trap. Stefan didn't say anything until she was in his arms; his hands unnaturally moving around her until he grabbed her roughly-keeping her pinned to his side. **"Stefan..."** she cried out again, worried now by his behavior. **"You didn't even tell her?"** Stefan smirked, laughing to himself. **"Coward,"** he muttered. Damon's face turned to stone as he stood there, watching the other thing he cherished most in his life walk into the hands of a monster. **"Damon?"** Elena questioned, fear resonating in her eyes as tears started to form. **"Damon, help me!"** She cried out. Damon felt his emotions overwhelming him, moisture collecting at the rims of his eyes as he stared at the ground so he wouldn't break in front of her. "I can't, Elena." That was all he could manage, all he could say. **"Tell her why,"** Stefan seethed, goading him on. He was enjoying this. "No." Damon said, his eyes angered as they lifted to meet his brother. **"Damon please...please...don't do this!"** Elena begged, she was sobbing now; struggling against Stefan. **"What is wrong with you? Stop this Stefan, STOP!"** Stefan smiled cunningly, shaking his head. **"He's saving Katherine, Elena. He loves that selfish bitch more than he does you,"** he cackled, **"and if you struggle one more time I'm snapping your neck!"** He threatened. Elena stilled instantly, Klaus coming out from the shadows, but Damon didn't look at him-not yet-he was watching the treachery register on Elena's features. **"Stefan, Stefan, Stefan,"** Klaus clicked his tongue and shook his head.

**"That's no way to treat our guest, wouldn't you agree?"** He posed, walking over to Elena as he caressed her cheek. She jerked away from him, her eyes moving back to Damon helplessly. **"Damon...please don't do this. She's only going to hurt you,"** she said in a defeated murmur. "Isn't that all you're going to do, Elena?" Damon finally growled, his hands clenching into fists as he looked at her; Klaus and Stefan fading away. "I love you, I'd do anything for you...but you want my brother. Have you not hurt me in some way? You're not faultless here, Elena," Damon grumbled. He wasn't sure if he was trying to prove something to her, or if he was trying to dignify his choice and make himself feel better. He sighed, shaking his head. "I'm sorry Elena, I'm sorry," he told her. He couldn't very well let her know he was coming back to her on a rescue mission, so instead he tore his eyes from her; paying attention to Klaus. "Where's your blood, I need to cure her," he said firmly, taking a few steps closer to him. **"Ahhh yes, you've kept your end of the bargain so I shall keep mine," **he said in a British accent, pulling out a vile from his coat pocket as he handed it to Damon. His icy gaze looked at it skeptically. "How do I know this is really yours?" He asked, uncorking the top as he dumped out the crimson red that was in there. "Now," he said handing it back, "you'll fill it in front of me so I can be certain. I'm not taking risks here. Katherine will live, she will survive this, and you're going to ensure it," he demanded stiffly. "I wouldn't trust you with her life," he sneered.

Klaus grinned. **"Smart man. Good man,"** he reasoned, taking the vile. He brought his wrist to his lips, puncturing into his life source as he dripped it into the chamber until it was completely full. Then he handed it back. "There you go." Damon didn't say thank you, he just took it; turning his back as he headed back to the car. He kept hearing Elena's cries but he drown them out, and right as he was going to get in Klaus looked up at him. **"That wasn't my blood originally,"** he called after Damon. He ducked his head in the car, peeling away; fighting the urge to turn around. Instead he thought of Katherine, thought of saving her, and that became the most important thing. He sped back to the boarding house, hurrying down to the cellar as he opened it up and went inside. "Katherine," Damon said softly, lifting her up into his arms. "Open your mouth, this will make you better," he told her. When she did as he told, he dumped the blood into her mouth, watching her drink it as he kept her close to him. He chucked the empty vile on the floor, his arms wrapping snugly around her so she would know she wasn't alone. Once she became coherent he took her upstairs to his bedroom, holding her as he fell asleep at her side. By morning, he turned and looked over at her. She was alive and breathing and that's all that mattered to him. "You look like shit," he smirked, trying to make her laugh. "Let me go get you some blood." He disappeared, returning shortly after with four bags for her as he rested them on the nightstand where she laid. "Once you drink that, I'm sure you'll feel better," he told her. He was quiet then, sitting on the edge of the bed as she fed her belly. When she was almost done with her third bag he began to speak again. "Please don't make me regret what I did, Katherine." He would get into the fact he needed her help later, for now he just wanted to make sure she was perfectly fine.

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

Katherine didn't want to spend the rest of her existence alone, she didn't want to be by herself, but she supposed that it was karma coming back at her. "I deserve it, don't I? To be alone forever?" Her brown eyes were glazed over, but she knew the reality that she was in and she was worried for her sake. She believed in an afterlife, she didn't know if there was a God or if there was a devil, but she knew there was life after death. She had witnessed certain instances where spirits had come back and she knew that if she got over on that other side that those spirits wouldn't be very kind to her if she ever came in contact with them. However, she didn't think she would. She knew she would be alone for eternity, she knew that she was meant to be alone. She deserved nothing less. And yet, here was Damon, telling her that he wasn't going to leave her, telling her that she wouldn't have to be alone. It was going to be okay. And even though she wanted to be brave and she wanted to be more than what she was, she couldn't stop herself from falling into pieces. The tears fell down her cheeks, "I'm scared." That was something she would have never admitted, but she was faced with an experience she never had to deal with before. Granted, she had been close to death more than once in her life, it had never been more certain than it was now. When he sat down next to her, she collapsed against his side and clung to him like a little child as he called Elena. There was a very selfish part of her that wanted him to do this, but then there was a little voice in the back of her head telling her otherwise.

When he hung up the phone, he told her that he wasn't going to let her die and then his lips pressed to her head and he tried to make her as comfortable as possible, but before he could pull away to leave, she was grasping onto his hand. She wasn't strong anymore, he could have just stepped away and she wouldn't have been able to stop him, but she needed to get this out. "Don't do this Damon… just stay here, don't take Elena to Klaus. I don't want you to do something you'll regret… she'll never forgive you. I'm not worth the sacrifice." Her voice was soft like a mouse, but she was trying so hard to get him not to do something she knew he would regret. "Please?" She nearly begged, but he didn't listen and he left her there. She lost track of time, lost track of her sanity, and lost track of who she was. Her mind kept playing tricks on her and she would end up at times in her life that she didn't want to revisit. There were her hopes and her dreams and her loses and her downfalls all flashing right before her eyes as if she was living each moment and she was terrified. Every once and a while she would snap out of her hallucinations and into reality and realize just how thirsty she was. She needed blood and she was regretting not taking up Damon's offer, but even then she knew that the blood would have made her so much worse, would have probably turned her into a blood thirsty monster. And then everything just stopped and went to black and her mind was clear. It was like she was having some kind of revelation, but she couldn't tell why… maybe she was dying.

She could imagine Damon's heartbreak when he realized he was too late to save her and that he had given up Elena for no reason at all. He would have never forgiven himself for it, but then she heard her name like some kind of glorious light at the end of a tunnel. She felt Damon take hold of her and lift her frail and sweaty body into his arms and she did as he asked, she opened her mouth and took in her saving grace. The blood soothed down her throat and, like the venom, stilled every little pain that she had been suffering through. She drank until he pulled the vile away from her lips and then she curled up against him and nestled into his embrace and she fell asleep before he even lifted her up to take her into his bedroom. She slept the entire night away until she could feel her thirst becoming a little too powerful for her taste. She always filled herself enough so that she wouldn't have to ever feel thirsty to the point of being in a desert and completely parched, but now she was stirring out of her sleep because she couldn't stand the dryness of her throat. She felt the bed underneath her and Damon's scent invaded her senses so thoroughly that she knew he was next to her and then her touch, all of those sensory receptors on her flesh began to activate and become alive and she could feel him next to her. She was wrapped up against him, his arms very protectively covering over her and she sighed, relieved that she wasn't dead and that he was looking at her with amusement in his eyes, not anger. She had gotten him into a touch situation and now, even though he wasn't feeling the guilt yet, soon that consciousness of his would take over and she was sure that she would feel the brunt of it.

She expected him to say good morning or how are you or something more romantic, but no, he didn't and her lips thinned into a line as she pushed at his body to get him out of the bed. "Jerk," she muttered as he ran out of the room to get her the blood she needed to pull herself out of his bed. She reached out for the bag before he had even entered the room and she was grateful to have it. She punctured the bag with her teeth and she sucked and squeezed at it, letting the blood rush into her mouth as Damon settled on the edge of the bed. She knew he wanted to say something to her so she just drank at her bags of blood until he got the nerve to say what he wanted to and what he did say, took her back a little. Her eyebrows furrowed together at his comment as she guzzled down the last bag of blood as she thought about what she was going to do. Damon had saved her life and there was no doubt in her mind that he wanted her to help him get Elena back and help to get Stefan back to. Katherine wasn't too worried. She didn't think that Stefan had it in him to let Klaus truly hurt Elena besides, Klaus needed Elena alive more than he did dead so she wasn't worried for Elena's life, just the condition of the life she would lead. "Why did you do this? I told you not to, but you did anyways. I thought you loved her… you do know saving me has ruined any chance you had to be with her? She won't forgive you for this."

For once, Katherine wasn't too concerned with herself as she was with the wellbeing of Damon. "You make me think that this was your way of choosing me; stop me now if I'm taking too many liberties…" She hesitated for a few moments, but when he didn't say anything to her, she took that as his confirmation so she continued on with her words. "You saved me knowing full well, from my track record, that I would probably leave you and show no remorse. Even with all of that bad history between us, you still saved me… Do you love me Damon?" Her question, she thought, was valid enough to ask. Why else would he have taken such great lengths to save her life? Still, she didn't wait for him to answer her because, for once in her life, she felt like she needed to give him a reason to want to love her, to want to be with her, a reason to have saved her life. She got to her knees on the bed and crawled over to him and then looked down at her fingers as she took his hand, "Here's my honest answer, it's all that I can give to you now… I'm scared… I am scared to love you." She shook her head a little before looking up at him and into his bright eyes; her own eyes reflecting no trace of the hard Katherine that she was certain would come back eventually when she was off of this 'near-death-experience' kick. In her eyes, was that seventeen year old girl that still believed in love, that still wanted love. "I really don't want to be alone, but I don't know how to live otherwise. And I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm going to be this way all of the time because that's not me… but it is me, but… I can't tell you, in completely honesty, and say that I'm going to stay because I'm better at running than anything else, but I want to try… I'll help you get her back." With that she got to her feet and didn't wait for him to say anything to her because she wasn't brave enough to face his rejection if that was what was going to come. "I'm going to, um, shower and then I'll tell you what I know." She turned then and walked away from him and into his bathroom and shut the door behind herself. Her fingers gripped onto the counter as she stared at herself in the mirror, "Fuck, I do look like shit."

**DAMON'S POV -**

Damon sat there silently, the sound of Katherine's swallows echoing in his ears as he waited for her response. He didn't want her to misconstrue his statement as regret for having chosen her, because he didn't regret it. He loved her as much as he didn't want to, and at the end of the day he was always going to be there for her and help her. Maybe that made him stupid, or maybe that meant he really was in love—perhaps a little of both, but either way it didn't change the facts. He had put Katherine before Elena and he was okay with that, he just didn't want to abandon Elena now because she didn't deserve that and neither did his brother. After all, it was Damon's fault that Stefan was in this entire situation to begin with and he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he had a debt to owe his sibling. He needed to get even and he needed to free him from Klaus, but especially Elena. "I do love her Katherine," Damon answered honestly, "but I love you more." The statement had already left his lips before he could retract it, and the only reason he would want to is because he knew his true emotions could be turned on him like a knife; a weapon wielded by her hand and he could die from it. "I don't need her to forgive me, I just need to get her back so she's safe," he added in a low voice, his crystal orbs dropping to the hard wood floor so he wouldn't have to look at her. Katherine continued, asking him things he didn't want to answer. Yes, he had chosen her and he knew it was obvious but he didn't want to audibly confirm it with his mouth.

Maybe it wouldn't be real if he ignored it, but he knew that was ignorant on his part. Her trailing question rung in his ears, repeating like a stereo song as he contemplated finally saying it—finally admitting to it, but he was a coward and he couldn't. Suddenly she was on the floor, between his legs again, his azure oceans having no choice but to lock on to her mocha gems. Damon was surprised at her admission, the hard features of his face softening instantly as he watched her own roughened front melt away. That honesty and sensitivity that was so rare for her shone through her bright eyes as he listened to her speak. She may not have been giving him everything he wanted, but she was giving him the truth and he took it and cherished it. He watched her get up and walk away from him, leaving him in shock as he sat on the bed. She was actually going to try to stay and help him get back Elena? He admired her for that. He knew it was hard for her, but he also knew it was the honorable thing to do and he knew she had a heart after all she just liked keeping it buried. Damon got up from the bed, opening the bathroom door to see Katherine standing in front of the mirror. "I like you the way you are Katherine. The way we use to be," he said softly, his hands urging her to turn to face him. "You and I…we made a good couple, a good team—and we'd make an even better one now. I don't want to you to change Katherine. When you care for someone, when you want to that is," he paused with a smirk, "you're the perfect combination of sweet and bitter."

He laughed a little at his statement. "Some might see that as a disgusting combination, but I on the other hand," he mused, his fingertips grasping at the base of her shirt as he peeled it over her head. "I think it's just right. You know how to make a man feel wanted, yet keep him guessing, keep him working for it at the same time. As long as I know you're not playing that game of cat and mouse with someone else…well then…you're just the woman I want and need. You don't make me feel trapped or overwhelmed," he whispered, the back of his hand brushing the apple of her cheek as he smiled down at her. "I do love you Katherine, and although I'm a good liar, I figure it's pointless to lie about something that's reflected in every action I take and the words I speak." He took a step closer, the distance between them getting shut out as his body pressed to hers. He leaned down, his lips claiming hers tenderly as he unclasped her bra; guiding the straps down her arms until it dropped to the floor. His hands rested at the curve of her waist, small groans of approval escaping him and echoing in her mouth as his tongue tangled with hers. Damon's hands drifted to the button of her skinny jeans, unclasping them as he shoved them over her hips and the swell of her ass; his hands gripping her firm cheeks as he hooked his finger under the string of her thong. He broke away from her mouth, his cerulean hues capturing hers as his hands floated down the sides of her body and then back up again. He cradled her neck and head as he continued to kiss her.

After paying more attention to her kissable petals, his mouth trailed wet kisses down her slender neck and over her collarbone as he began to descend down her body. His tongue flicked over her pink nipple, sucking it between his lips as he nibbled on it before dropping lower on to his knees. His hands tugged down her pants, taking her panties next before he helped her step out of both. Then he moved back to his feet, anxiously stripping himself of his own clothing until they were both naked. "Katherine," he groaned desperately, his body returning to hers like he would die if he wasn't close to her. Damon's mouth collided with hers as he pressed her up against his glass shower, is free hand opening the door as he inched them closer and closer until his hand grabbed the nozzle. He flipped it on, the spray of warm water washing over his arm as he held Katherine's head in his hands and gazed into her doe eyes. "I'm glad you're okay," he murmured against her lips as he pulled them under the cleansing stream of water as he shut the glass door. Steam was already billowing them around them as he pushed her against the tile walls, his mouth joining hers again as his hands moved down her chest; fondling her. He pinched her nipples into hardened pink crests, flicking them with his fingers to get a rise out of her as he pushed his knee between her legs. He rubbed his thigh over her womanhood, her drenched folds smearing their arousal down his leg before the water washed it away. "Mmmmmmmmm," he hummed, drawing away from her as he spun her around.

He pinned her chest to the wall, his hands moving away her soaked locks over her shoulder as he kissed down the nape of her neck; his tongue leading the way before his lips closed over it. Damon's palms moved to her front, guiding down her wet belly until his fingers were teasing in the tuft of her pubic hair creating the perfect landing strip to the promise land. He smirked when she naturally spread her legs without him having to ask. Katherine knew what was coming, and he was glad because he had no intentions of stopping. His digits dipped between her heated slit, more of her moisture collecting on his fingertips as he moved up and down. His cock beat to life against her ass cheeks, hardening vigorously against her smooth skin. "Stick your ass out," he ordered her passionately, as he backed up; giving her some room to do so. He positioned his engorged head at her tight entrance, pushing his way in with a grunt as her muscles stretched over him slowly; clamping down on him and leaving him panting against her back as the water continued to rain down on him from behind. "Katherine," Damon moaned out, his arms tightening around her so that her back was pressed tightly against his chest. It increased the pressure on his dick, making him growl out in anticipation as he bucked forward; feeling her pussy spasm around him like a flickering light bulb. His hand moved back between her legs again, intent on getting her to moan out his name and pleasure her as he pressed the pad of his digit against her pulsating nub. He was quick and relentless as he manipulated her aching center. "Talk to me Katherine," he mumbled in her ear, his tongue tracing the contour of her earlobe as he began to take her quickly from behind.

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

Katherine wasn't sure what to do. It was as though she was trying to grab and hold onto water that kept passing through her fingers. Here he was, confessing to her that he loved her more than he loved Elena and really she didn't need him to tell her that, she had witness his affection for her in the way he had sacrificed Elena for her. However, him saying the words made her feel the consistency, as if the water she had tried to grasp had suddenly turned to ice and now she could hold it. His words were a lot more solid than his actions were to her and she knew how off that seemed, but everything about the two of them didn't make sense. She had come back to Mystic Falls with a mission to get Stefan back… well that was the second half of her mission aside from ruining the vampires in the tomb to keep them quiet. She had her mind set and she wasn't using to swaying decisions and now she felt like a fish out of water. She had just committed herself to saving Elena and she stood there, staring at herself in the mirror, wondering if Damon was using her to save Elena. Yes, her mind would go there. She sighed a little, shaking her head. He wasn't as cruel as she was, he wouldn't do something like that to her; after all, she had seen the honesty in his eyes. Those beautiful sky blue eyes that looked deep into her soul with every unintended glance and she knew she couldn't doubt him. However, giving herself to Damon was a different story. She was a wild woman with a fiercely independent spirit and she wasn't sure she could stick with just one man for the rest of her existence.

When she had been with Damon the first time, she had Stefan with her as well, she always had her options open. She had never actually been with a single man for any length of time beyond her human years. She wasn't in search of love or a life partner, she didn't want to have anything to do with it and yet the idea of living without it didn't appeal to her either. She wanted to be with someone she cared about, she wanted that companionship, but who knew how long she would want it? And by it she meant Damon, but couldn't get herself to even begin to comprehend that kind of name transition. He had told her he loved her and in her own weird way, staying meant that she loved him to. Katherine knew what love was, she had felt it once before in her life and she knew the brutal honesty of it. Love was unconditional and desperate, it could make you or break you in the most beautiful and horrendous of ways, but Katherine had never known real love because she had never had someone to return the love she felt. And now, she was being offered her chance, that possibility of maybe experiencing what her heart had been longing for for centuries, but had neglected to realize in the many years of her existence. She had always saw love as being her greatest weakness, it never made her better or stronger, it always brought her down. How could she trust it not to do the same thing to her now? She knew then that she wasn't going to be able to say the words if Damon wanted to hear them and it wasn't so much her not wanting to say them or that her pride was getting in the way, it was the finality of the words that made her want to turn and run.

She didn't know why she hadn't predicted that Damon would come into the bathroom after her, but he did and she felt very weak and exposed standing there both physically and emotionally. She didn't like being read like an open book and there was no doubt in her mind that he could do that now if he so wished. She just stood there, not wanting to move, but finding it difficult to deny his urgings to turn towards him to look at him. She wanted to come out and tell him that they could never go back to being what they once were because Katherine hadn't been fully invested in that relationship at all. She had been playing a game and she didn't want to do that again. Her affections had been shared then and now she was ready to give herself over to him and him only so no, she wouldn't even contemplate going back to what they once were because that had been fake and she wanted this to be real. "I always cared about you in my own twisted way," she muttered. She had cared for Damon, but she had cared for Stefan too. One of her eyebrows rose at his use of antonyms to describe her, but she knew the words were completely fitting to her personality. She then realized what he was trying to get at, he didn't want her to change. She could feel a weight being lifted off of her chest within the next second because she wasn't going to change, she knew she wouldn't. Granted, she would make a few adjustments, but she wouldn't have to become Elena to make Damon love her. Katherine could still be Katerina Petrova, that silly girl with a venomous tongue and flippant personality because he liked her that way, he accepted her that way.

Katherine lifted her arms above her head as Damon pulled her dirty shirt from her body, her entire body hanging off of every word that left his lips. Her body pressed into him, her head tilting slightly into his hand, the warmth of his fingers against her cheek making her flutter her eyelids closed as she savored the feeling. She hadn't been this enamored since she was fifteen years old and she hadn't been expecting it then either. He was saying so many heart-stopping things, words that had her heart swelling and bursting in repetitive cycles that refused to stop and yet she was still hesitating. As soon as his lips pressed to hers, her body flooded with warmth. This kiss he was giving her wasn't nearly as hard and passionate as the last kiss they had shared before she had left him, it was gentle, tender, and soft, everything that he had once given her when he was so certain that he loved her. This was the Damon that she had missed, the Damon she thought was boring, but was longing after at the same time. This was the man that she had once fallen in love with and now he was the best of both worlds for her. He was as compulsive as Stefan used to be when he was human, but as sweet as the gentleman that she remembered him to be. He was what she had been searching for and, in that moment, there was no question for her. Her lips responded to him instantly, moving lightly over his as though she was breathing in his soul with every pucker of her lips and with every inhale she took. She was so involved with the movement of his lips that she didn't notice him unclasping her bra until he pulled down and the straps caught at her arms because she was so eagerly reaching out for him. Her arms dropped until the ridiculous garment was on the floor and then her arms were wrapped around his neck.

Her body arched forward into him, going on tip toes as she pulled him down to her until they were bent slightly so that his tall frame was coming down to her, his hands taking her jeans and pushing them down her hips. He pulled away from her lips and her head naturally leaned forward to capture them again, but he was touching her, distracting her. She stomped her foot at him, grasping onto his shirt with both hands, pulling him to her with the urgency of one who was dying. She had nearly lost her life and if it hadn't been for him, she would be gone from this world and probably burning in the pits of hell; she had a lot to be thankful for and each blessing came in the form of Damon and his love, that generosity that he kept giving her even though she didn't deserve it. When his lips met hers again she was determined never to let him part from her. She moaned, her lips opening as she sucked his tongue into her mouth, entangling his wet muscle with her own until he moved his mouth down her neck and then lower still. She cradled the back of his head with her hands, pressing him to her body as she threw back her own head, savoring the sweet feel of his tongue running along her sensitive crests. Her nipple hardened underneath the warmth of his mouth as he suckled on her like a babe, pulling her jeans and panties down her legs until there wasn't a stitch of clothing on her body. She reached down for him, urging him back to his feet and to her mouth, her fingers pushing his unbuttoned shirt down his arms as he ridded himself of his clothing.

She felt the cool of the glass against her back as he pushed her up against the shower before opening the door and guiding her backwards, further and further until he could turn on the water. She felt the hot water bath against the backs of her legs as he looked deep into her mocha hues and told her that he was happy she was okay. She found the words oddly peaceful knowing that all of his threats to kill her had been, as she suspected, completely false. Within the next moment, his lips were claiming hers, her back colliding with the tiled wall, his hands massaging against her breasts. She pressed her chest into his palms, her bosom forming to the palm of his hands, her nipples tightening into small diamonds between his fingertips. His knee wedged between her legs and she parted them happily, settling herself down against his thigh. Her hips rocked against the firmness of his thigh, her wet folds parted against his skin, her clit aching with every touch as she slid along him, completely ready to get off right then and there, but he had other plans. He pulled away from her and twisted her around, the front of her body plastering up against the wall as the warm water cascaded down her back, wetting her dark curls dampening them straight as he moved them over her shoulder so he could kiss down her neck. With her eyelids closed, she paid particular attention to the way he caressed her, to every single touch of his lips, his fingers, and his tongue. A shiver rolled down her spine, her legs opening up for him as he invaded her senses, his fingers dipping into her wet folds. She hissed, her body visibly shaking at the feel of his fingertips and his hardened cock pressing up against her ass. "Please," she begged, tired of waiting for him. She needed him desperately; she wanted him more now than ever.

She was being very passive with him and she knew it, but she wanted him to have that masculine power, that knowledge that her body was his own and he could do whatever he wanted to her and she would play like a puppet, attached to his strings. She stepped backwards, her forearms braced against the wall as she did as she was told, sticking her ass out towards Damon, her legs widening as she did so only just enough to give him access to her pussy, but not without him having to work against the tension of her muscles and her tightness to do so. A low groan developed in the back of her throat as he pushed into her tight entrance. Her pussy tightened, her muscles pulsing around his thick dick as he buried himself into her until all of him was nestled inside of her. His arms tangled around her, bringing her body up against him so that her body formed to every dip of his own muscular frame. Her jaw dropped, her mouth opening as a sharp pang of pleasure erupted in her lower abdomen and flared out throughout her entire body. His hand snaked back to her front and down between her folds until his heated fingertips rubbed against her aching clit, hardening it at his touch until it swelled with blood. Her knees quivered as he thrust into her, her arm reaching upwards, grasping behind his neck in an effort to keep her stable as he tore into her body with a sweet agony that erupted like a volcano throughout her petite frame. Her entire mind was blank as he pounded into her from behind, his cock piercing into her molten core as she drove back down against him, her fingers twisting into his wet hair, gripping onto the only sanity she felt she had left.

She shook her head, squeezing her eyelids shut as she struggled to grasp onto her words, but she couldn't think. There was only one thing that she wanted to tell him and it ran through her mind like neon lights scrolling along like an advertisement, blinking and flashing in big, bold, capital letters. She sucked in a deep breath that then refused to leave her until a long, drawn-out moan poured out of her lips. And then, very suddenly, she was pulling away from her, twisting around until her back was firmly plastered against the tiles. Her chest was rising and falling with such desperation, the confused look on Damon's features making him that much more strikingly handsome to her. She reached for him then, taking his hand, pulling him to her body with a smack. She lifted a slender stem around his waist and hoisted herself up, wrapping her other leg around him until he was supporting the both of them. She reached down for him, grasping onto his dick before rubbing his swollen head against her cunt. She purposely grazed his dick along her clit, gasping for breath every time, her body squirming with each glorious sensation. "Damon," she whispered, knowing that she couldn't give him what he wanted to hear because she wasn't there yet. She did love him, but she wasn't ready to tell him that. She just couldn't open herself that way because it always damaged her in the end. She couldn't give him that piece of her yet and she hoped that he would understand. As of now, her actions would just have to prove to him that she was in this—whatever it was—she was ready to find out what he had to offer her.

"Show me how much you love me," she purred, guiding his length into her pussy. Her arousal coated over his dick, lavishing him in her love. She pressed her upper shoulders against the wall, arching her back against him, using the angle as leverage to drive his dick deeper into her core. "You always were the best I ever had." A mischievous smirk etched onto her full lips before her hand wrapped around the back of his neck, pulling him to her. Her mouth opened before their lips locked, her tongue intruding into his mouth with a feverish urgency, their muscles tangling together as she moved her hips up and down, burying his dick into her cunt over and over again until she could feel her muscles tightening deliciously. "Mmm, fuck… yessss, right there, right there, FUCK!" Katherine nearly screamed, the entire motion of her body stopping, her fingernails digging into the flesh of his upper arms, drawing blood. "Slower, slower... oh yes, just like that," she moaned, hugging herself to Damon. Her tongue slid along his neck, to his ear, her lips pulling his earlobe into her mouth as she sucked on him gently. "Cum with me Damon, please?" She begged, "I want to feel your cock twitch in my dirty cunt… hmm, cum inside of me Damon, let me feel your pleasure." She whispered into his ear, her hips drawing small circles against him. She squeezed her pussy, her muscles tightening around the base of his cock, just before she started to thrust her hips against him hard until she could feel his dick begin to quiver inside of her. "That's it, yes, yes, YES!" She screamed. She felt his orgasm ripple along his lower abdomen, sending his cum plummeting deep into her depths. All it took was the feel of his stringy cum hitting her sensitive patches of skin for her to let go. Katherine gripped onto Damon hard, her legs and arms tightening around him as her body froze as she reached her peak and then she tipped over the edge and her body convulsed against him.

His name fell from her lips repeatedly in breathless moans as she came all over his dick, but the moment the last ripple of pleasure coursed through her body, she was dismounting him. Her legs dropped down to the wet tiles, that devilish look in her eye lighting like a flame to lighter fluid. "You wanna know what I miss," she purred, her pointer finger drawing down his chest until she could wrap her fingers around his dick. She pulled on him, pumping her hand along his length as she looked deep into his crystal eyes. She could feel his cock getting harder and harder in her hands until he was completely stiff and she knew that, even though each tug of her hand brought him pleasure, it was also giving him a little discomfort. "I miss," she licked at her lips, "your dick in my ass." She chuckled a little, turning her body around, purposely pushing her heart shaped ass against his cock, rubbing her ass cheeks against him with deliberate slowness. "Come on Damon, I want you to fill me up… tear me open. If I remember right, you used to be really good at it; after you got over your nerves of course." Katherine laughed lightly. She had always been experimental in bed and back in the 19th century the only sex position that existed was missionary style. She was the one that convinced Damon to expand his horizons, even if that had taken a little coaxing. Katherine loved a cock in her asshole, a cock down her throat, a cock in her pussy, a cock between her boobs; she had done it all. She was a fucking dirty whore and she wasn't afraid to show it and she wanted Damon to take full advantage of her. Katherine bent down low, her ass sticking up into the air as she pressed her hands up against the glass. She shook her ass a little, "Take me or I'll take you."

**DAMON'S POV -**

For Damon this moment made everything worth it, including sacrificing Elena. It wasn't in a perverted means, either; although he always loved fucking Katherine this was different. Each of them had dropped their own guard in some form and there was honesty being exchanged between them as he buried his cock deep within her strangling pussy. Every slam into her behind sent him deeper into her cunt, his fingers ardent and attentive to her swollen bud as her pants and noises echoed in his ears. He kissed down her neck, loving the feel of her arm wrapping around the back of his head and pulling him closer; reflecting the desperation that he was already feeling toward her. Damon cocked his head to the side when she pulled away from him, his erect dick bouncing as he looked at her with curious eyes. He knew there was no way she was done, so it was just a matter of what she had planned for next. He smirked at her, this boyish twinkle resonating in his glacier pools as he watched her intently and lovingly. He moved into her with a wet slap, their skin slipping against one another with the moisture and rain from the shower as she lifted her leg; her calve pulling him further into her as she hoisted her body up around him. Her lengthy stems wrapped around his waist, as his arms ran up against her waist; supporting her weight in conjunction with the tile walls as he gazed into her chocolate gems. Katherine was perfect to him in that moment, and nothing was going to touch what they were sharing; even though the doubt lurked in the back of his mind that tomorrow would not bring the same experience. Damon loved her, and he intended to show it through his actions.

He let her palm wrap around his thick girth, watching as she guided it up her wet slit and against her raw clit as she squirmed in pleasure. He smirked, enjoying the show as she murmured his name. "Yes Katherine," Damon replied in a husky voice, as he drown in her mocha oceans. He smiled instantly at her words, his mouth connecting to hers instantly as his eager tongue parted her addictive petals. "Katherine," he breathed against her, his lips forming to hers again and again as she guided his throbbing cock back into her soaked walls. He hummed against her open mouth in anticipation and pleasure, thrusting his dick deep inside of her as he worked her pussy with intensity. He chuckled at her remark, glad that she had finally admitted it. He always knew that he was a better lover than Stefan, and for Kat to actually come out and announce that fact was a stroke to the ego that he truly needed. His thick digits ran through her wet hair, pulling her lips roughly against his while his other hand stayed wrapped around her back, supporting her as he drove into her repeatedly until her muscles were straining against him. He could tell she was close and so was he. The moment she broke their kiss and began to cry out he watched her. His crystal optics followed the contours of her mouth, watching the shapes her lips made as she drew closer to ecstasy-the pleasure that he was bestowing upon her. "That's it Katherine, enjoy it," he murmured, his hand stabling the position they were in so his dick could rub over her muscles in just the right spots until she was purring for him. Her visage turned him on, sending his boys tightening as he slammed into her; only slowing when the sting from her nails and her words was telling him to.

His hands ran down her spine then when she pulled close to him, his movements intentionally slow until he was torturing her and she was begging for him to release with her. "Katherine," Damon murmured, the throaty noise escaping his throat in a tone he didn't recognize as she sucked on his ear and nibbled there. His arms crossed at her back, hugging her as close as humanely possible as she began to slam her hips against his, the friction of her spongy walls more than glorious as his dick began to jerk and twitch inside of her. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," he panted in her ear, pressing his lips to the top of her shoulder as he furiously bucked his pelvis into hers as he unloaded his thick seed in her juicy cunt. His orgasm served as the catalyst for her as she squirmed against him, her hips gyrating over his dick as her heady nectar rolled over him in thick sugary waves. He held her convulsing body against him, her hard nipples digging into his chest as the water continued to pelt against their skin. Damon let her legs drop down the tile, loving that she was still able to stand after that. "Getting off of me so soon?" He mused with a devilish grin, noting her own mischievous countenance as her finger drug down his wet chest. "What's that?" He asked, a shiver rippling up his spine as her hand wrapped around his dick. The mix of pleasure and pain had him hardening in her expert palm once more, it didn't take much from the likes of Katherine. He was ready for round two, desperate for it as his cock began to ache. "Kat..." he groaned, his eyes fluttering closed as she released him. When Damon opened his eyes again her ass was rubbing up and down his shaft, making his eyes bug out in angst for her dirty words dripped from her tongue.

"Oh really?" He laughed a little, shaking his head when she brought up the past. Katherine had only been the second woman that he had slept with. Out at war he had slept with one young girl he met at a bar, but it was awkward missionary sex. He remembered it as clear as day, the pretty little red head had cried through the entire ordeal. Then came Katherine, a little sex kitten who loved to have wild romps between the sheets. He remembered the first time she had demanded he stick his dick in her tight little asshole, he was certain he had blushed. He was so naive and gentlemanly, and women didn't talk like Katherine did back then. His cock was already pounding in excitement, he wanted to take her again. "A lot has changed since then Katherine, I've learned a thing or two over the past century or so," he mused with glittering icy pools. He shook his head at her statement, giving her no warning whatsoever as he slammed into her tight ass. He felt her tissue stretch, warmth rushing around him to let him know he may have torn some of her tissues. It was ruthless, but this is how him and Katherine were which was one of the bonuses of being with her. She wasn't breakable, at least not in the bedroom and he could lose all inhibitions and have her as roughly as he wanted to knowing with certainty she would enjoy it and wouldn't hold it against him. In fact, when the vixen before him demanded malicious sex if you didn't deliver you were a disappointment and in for a world of pain. However Damon had no intention of disappointing her, he knew he physically couldn't. "Like that, Katherine?" He growled in her ear, reveling in the sensation of her ass tightening around his thick girth before he pulled out of her.

The scent of iron and salt invaded his nostrils, causing his gaze to drop down to see the red tinge sheathing his cock before he barreled back into her again. His hands braced himself as they landed on her waist, guiding her heart shaped ass back and over his cock every time he'd shove it into her. The intense position was sending him to his climax much quicker than he wanted, but it didn't cause him to slow down; he was enjoying himself far too much. He hammered into her consistently, the sound of her whimpers and moans spurring him on as his hands danced along every inch of her flesh that he could reach. He fondled her breast and placed kisses down her skin, his upper body reflecting tender loving movements while his lower half ripped into her with conviction and dominance until he was about to explode. Her warm blood was oozing around his dick now, rushing out of her asshole and down to the water that was spinning around the drain. He wasn't being gentle, but that didn't seem to affect her because she was moaning with just as much passion as he was. When Damon couldn't take it anymore he pulled out his cock, his hand moving over it in quick motions as he jerked himself off; his seed squirting against the shower door and down into the water. He let out a grunt, his breathing rapid and concentrated before he got down on his knees. His hands moved over her ass cheeks, red from where he had been ramming into her like a wrecking ball. He placed kisses there before dipping his tongue in the widened hole he had created, her blood seeping on to his taste buds as he let out a low hum of satisfaction. "You're gonna be sore for the next few hours until you heal completely," he murmured against her olive colored flesh, his tongue trailing over her bum and back into her asshole.

"Did you think I was done with you?" Damon mumbled. The water in the shower was starting to cool, but he hardly cared. He pulled her pussy into his face from behind, his tongue snaking out and moving up her slit. "You're going to cum for me again and it's going to be directly into my mouth," he demanded in a silky tone before he twisted her around, slamming her back into the tile as his lips and mouth dove on her like she was his air. His wet muscle probed into her tight channel, down to her ass, and then back up until it circled repeatedly under her taut bundle of nerves. It pulsated against his tongue; Damon so sensitive to her needs that he knew right where to curl his pink muscle to get her to scream. "Ride my face Katherine, let me taste that cunt," he demanded, and she instantly did what he asked. She grinded down against him, his nose and chin getting smeared with her arousal until she screamed above him. Her sugary nectar ran around his tongue like a generous fountain, and he didn't get back to his feet until he had cleaned her up.

After that the two actually showered, Damon tending to her with tenderness and devotion before she returned the favor. Once they were out both of them dressed before heading downstairs. Damon took to the cellar, grabbing more blood bags for the both of them before he handed her one; seating himself on the brown leather sofa as he crossed his legs and looked over at her. "You're amazing, you know that?" He smiled, actually smiled, momentarily forgetting that they had a rescue mission to begin. He sort of wished he could let it fall by the way side and him and Kat could go off together, but his conscience wouldn't have allowed that. So as much as he didn't want to, he brought up Klaus. "Katherine...what do you know about Klaus? I'm not in a rush to get it over with, but in a sense I am," he stated, his hand catching hers as she walked past him. He pulled her down into his laps, his free arm circling around her waist as he held her close to him. Damon brought the glass of blood to his lips, downing it before he gazed into her eyes. "I want to be done with it because I want to leave Mystic Falls and go off with you. I have no reason to stay here now, and I see that now. So..." he continued, "the sooner I can rescue Elena and my brother the quicker I can be off with you," he murmured hotly, his lips melting into hers.

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

Katherine was daring and loved to be violated, but only by someone who knew just how to tear her open. Damon had always been good at pleasing her which was one of the reasons why she was asking him to appease her… not that she would really give him a choice. Katherine had never given Damon a choice; she had only made him believe he was making the decisions where she was concerned. She was always very well aware of her power over him and she was a master manipulator. Did she regret the things she did? To some extent. Would she ever want to take it back? No, she wouldn't. Damon was who he was today because of her and she loved that. So as he shoved his dick into her ass, she found herself getting even that much more turned on. She hissed through clenched teeth as her flesh tore, those sensitive tissues ripping at the seams as he filled her. Katherine didn't like mercy so it wasn't any surprise to her that Damon was ruthless with her. She reached behind her, her hands gripping onto the backs of his thighs as he rammed into her, pounding into her so fast she hardly had time to recognize that he was thrusting at all. She could feel a warmth gush around his dick and the scent of her own blood wafted into the air and she smiled, her arms reaching out for the tiled walls as she made a desperate effort to stabilize herself. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" She nearly screamed, a growl vibrating deep within her throat as she felt his dick harden and twitch in her ass. "God, yes!" She moaned, her fingers dipping into her slit, the water and her own arousal covering her fingertips as she ran her digits over her precious jewel.

She could feel him ready to cum when he pulled out of her. Her chest heaved up and down, her fingertips still rubbing over her swollen clit as she watched him jerk himself off. His cum shot out, dripping along the glass door of the shower, mixing with the water as it fell down the drain. She wanted so badly to lick him up, swallow his delicious seed, but Damon didn't take orders from her anymore. He knew what he wanted and he was going to take it from her and she was more than willing to hand herself over. She felt Damon bend down, his hands gripping onto her ass cheeks as he spread her apart. She hummed as his tongue licked along her ass, her blood dripping onto his tongue as he cleaned her up. She did think then that their fun was over, that they would go on and shower and start their little search and rescue mission, but Damon had other plans. "Hmm?" An involuntary shiver dribbled down her spine as his tongue slithered down her cunt until a tremble had her legs growing shaky. He flipped her around then, her back resting along the tiled wall as he dipped into her treasure again with his mouth. Her fingers laced into his hair, her hands adding pressure to the back of his head to keep his face buried in her twat. He was lavish with his tongue, doting on every patch of sensitive flesh she had until she felt her body start to slide down the wall.

Katherine was strong, but there was something about his sweet torture that had her crumbling at the knees. She couldn't quite comprehend anything that was happening other than the sound of his voice telling her what to do. She nodded her head, thrusting her hips upward, rubbing her pussy all over his face. Every groove along his nose, lips, and chin sent her muscles into a spasm, tensing uncomfortably as his tongue massaged her slippery muscles, reaching every pleasure point until she was screaming. Her back arched off of the wall as he forced her body to hurtle towards her orgasm before she could push it back. She screamed, her body snapping into a fit of quivers as her climax spread from her lower abdomen all the way through her body until she was shivering with the motion of his tongue as he flicked along her pussy until she was clean of her arousal. "Mmm, you make me feel like jello," she whispered, leaning up against him as soon as he was on his feet. She held onto him for a while, using him as a balance as he tenderly washed her body, she returning the favor once she could stand without worrying about tipping over. When they were done, relatively dry, and clothed, Katherine went into her room and grabbed the one journal she kept that she had never had any intention of showing to anyone. She didn't want to open it up to Damon because it was her only defense, but it would get her where she wanted to go and she had to accept that Damon was going on this journey with her whether she liked it or not. Once she had it, she went downstairs to find Damon coming from the cellar with several blood bags. She watched him pour some blood into two glasses before he handed her one. "Thank you," she said as she watched him sit on the sofa.

His comment made her smile, her shoulder lifting slightly in a modest gesture that was obviously very cocky, "I know." She laughed lightly before attempted to move by him, but instead, he took her hand and pulled her back against him so that she had no choice, but to sit on his lap. "You're pretty amazing yourself." His arm wrapped around her waist and she knew then that he was getting attached to her and that didn't settle well on Katherine's mind. Worse still he had to go and tell her that he wanted to run off with her. In an ideal world she would be okay with that, but she wasn't. She didn't like the idea of having someone with her that she had to worry about. Damon was reckless and his track record proved that time and time again. Katherine, on the other hand, thought about everything before she came out and did something; Damon had the potential to ruin all of that, he had the potential to get her killed. "You're cute," she leaned back a little, letting Damon support her body as she brought the journal up onto her lap and the glass to her lips. He wanted to run off with her and she didn't want to say no because a part of her wanted that too, but she wasn't allowing herself to be receptive to it. "Alright, so basically after Klaus killed my family I made it a point to always know where he is. I have friends, but sometimes I have to do the tracking myself. And what better way to remain safe than to be close enough to him that he wouldn't suspect me of being around. Over the years of watching him, I learned quite a few things about it."

Katherine opened up her book then and flipped through a few pages. "While I was tracking Klaus in the 20s, he and Stefan crossed paths, but that wasn't really the most exciting part of that venture. What I noticed is that Klaus likes to keep things that are important to him very close to him. So one night while Klaus and Stefan were entertaining themselves, I snuck into a warehouse and discovered something interesting." She brought the glass to her lips and sipped on the blood, feeling the flow of it electrify every nerve in her body as it cascaded down to her belly. "Now, when I first met Klaus, he was introduced to me by his brother Elijah. At the time, I thought it was just the two of them, but their sister, Rebekah, was never very far away. All three are originals, but I know from several stories that they aren't the only ones. You have his parents, presumably, and some more siblings, possibly. Interesting thing about it all is that, over time, those siblings were talked about less and less. I didn't have any theories until I went into that warehouse and stumbled upon four coffins. One wouldn't open, one was empty, and the other two held two vampires with a danger in the heart. I assumed they were originals because they weren't dead. Anyways, that night I'm pretty sure he locked his sister in the empty one… as I'm pretty sure he's probably locked Elijah up in one too." Katherine set her now empty glass to the side, "My idea is pretty simple. Steal the coffins and strike a deal. Get Elena and Stefan back and be done with it. And then run of course. I underestimated Klaus' need for revenge once, I won't do it again. All we have to do is track them down and figure out how to get the coffins when Klaus keeps them pretty locked up and safe."


	5. Backlash

Hello everyone!

So neither Yoshi or I can believe that anyone is actually taking the time to read what we've written together. It is just, totally beyond us! And we wanted to take the time to give all of you lovely readers some love, but especially those who are kind enough to take time and leave us reviews. We love your input so much and it was what we wanted from the start. When we decided to post our writing, we were fumbling with the idea of writing a novel, but we wanted to see if our writing could grab people and, thus far, we are both encouraged towards accomplishing our mutual dream. So thank you so much for that!

Now, onto a bit of an explanation. Yoshi and I are roleplayers and that means that, all of this writing you are reading, is not only old, but it's written in a weird format. We aren't exactly updating yet, as it were, we're posting what we have written to each other in the past and gathering it all up into chapters and reposting it here on fanfiction (we will be doing this until we have you all caught up with where we currently are in our writing). Secondly, let me explain the POV format that we write in because we do realize it is a bit confusing. As much as we would love to write in book format, meaning all perspectives are together and there is no backtracking, we are writing two separate characters on our own time and posting them back and forth to each other. It's weird, we know, and we both have talked about meshing it together, but we don't think it would be good and here's why:

First of all, Yoshi and I live thousands of miles apart; we are not with each other enough to be able to write cohesively together to maintain the characters we individually write; we aren't standing over each other's screens to monitor what we write to make sure it's accurate. We thought about maybe one of us writing one chapter and then switching back and forth, but we have also found problems with that. Yoshi writes an AMAZING Damon that I, Joy, could never even dream of replicating in such a manner that you would think Damon was the same Damon for each chapter. This rule applies vice versa with Katherine; Yoshi can't write Katherine the way that I can because, lets' face it, Damon and Katherine are two separate entities and neither of us are fully aware how the other perceives their character or predicts their movement and actions. In that respect, we feel that meshing it all together in a cohesive manner would ruin what we have created. As you can probably tell, our writing styles, though similar, have very vast and unique differences and if we mess with what we have going, we are likely to ruin the atmosphere of the world we have written as well as the distinctive qualities of our characters. The both of us have even talked about just meshing our paragraphs together, but even that will get complicated and horribly choppy.

We understand that, in order to write a book together, we will need to work out some kind of system to make it work, but our hope is that we won't be separated for long and that, at some point, we will be in an environment where we can write together. If not, and it becomes too much of a problem, we are working on an idea to be able to mesh everything together to something similar to book format writing, but it may take us time to do that. Just be aware that what we are currently posting is old, so the next several chapters will be in the same POV format and will continue to be until we can figure something out between ourselves. Quite frankly, we didn't think anyone would read this so we weren't exactly thinking about that the POV format would prove difficult, but we love that it has become an issue!

Much gratitude and love to you all,

Joy

**DAMON'S POV -**

"Wow a compliment, should I faint?" Damon mused with sarcasm, a small chuckle escaping his lips as she leaned her body back into him. He couldn't help but wonder what she was really thinking in that moment. He wanted to let all his anxieties and worry cease, but the truth was that was an unrealistic goal where Katherine was concerned. She hadn't really done anything to earn his trust back yet. Sure, she was staying now but that didn't mean much. Maybe she just felt obligated to pay a debt. He had seen something in her a few times since she had been back in his life, a flicker of love and humanity in those beautiful brown pools of hers but he still had his doubts. He didn't say anything when she said he was cute, in some ways he felt like it was a patronizing remark, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions so he didn't say anything or treat her any differently than he had been. However, he didn't get the response he was looking for when he told her that he wanted to run away with her. His crystal gaze shifted to the journal she brought up to her lap as he listened to her speak. There was so much about her he didn't know, but he loved learning, he liked knowing what made a person tick. It was an attribute to his personality that one probably wouldn't suspect, but he loved knowing people's details and what made them unique and special. He was even like that with his enemies because he knew he was bound to find a weakness, but with those he cared for or loved it was even more prominent. Learning about Kat always offered him the insight he was looking for.

"Klaus and Stefan were friends?" He stated, more in disbelief than anything else. There were chunks of his brother's life that was a mystery to him because he had been tracking witches and old ties to Katherine at that point. As much as he had made it a goal to make his brother's life miserable, he derailed from that a few times if there was something that was going to lead him back to his sire. Therefore, it wasn't really a surprise that he didn't know a chunk of his brother's whereabouts in the 1920's, but it still shocked him that he would become chums with the Original himself. He listened extra closely when she said she had found something interesting. "Coffins?" He repeated, his eyes narrowing to the floor as he thought this through. Everyone had a weakness, and his was clearly his family, how ironic. The monster had a heart, apparently. "Alright, I like your plan. Simple, but to the point," he mused. "Do you have any idea where he's located or where these coffins are?" Damon asked her curiously. But that's where the real fun began. For the next two weeks the two of them found old acquaintances Katherine had established over the years while running from Klaus who conveniently owed her favors so that they could assist in locating Klaus. Most were witches, and with their power along with common sense and following the dead body tracks they were able to pin point a location in Franklin, Louisiana. Now that they had driven there by car, the real test now would be to find if they were really there or not or if it was another dead end. Lord knows they had plenty of those. He pulled his camaro up to a harbor dock in the middle of nowhere, the pale moon high in the sky as he killed the engine.

"This already looks questionable," he murmured under his breath as he walked at her side up the narrow corridor to the storage units. "Do you think the coffins are here or not?" Damon inquired in a low whisper, but a different voice answered. **"They were,"** Stefan said, causing him to turn around instantly. **"So...you know, good job, but we moved them two days ago and I was told to stay here to confirm the fact we were being followed. You know, it's pathetic really..."** he trailed off, shaking his head as he looked at the ground. "What is?" Damon asked. He knew he was walking right into the trap but he wanted to know what his brother was going to say. **"Elena. She claimed she wants me, but now that she has me all she talks about is you and how much she misses you. I'm pretty sure she loves you, brother. What poor timing to choose that wench over the girl who is actually worth something,"** he hissed evilly. Damon swallowed the bile that raised in his throat, his face not giving away to the feelings that were now eating away at him. He had to admit the prospect of Elena loving him made him feel something inside, but then he had to remember that his brother could be just as heartless and manipulative as he could and there was a very big chance he was lying to play to his weakness. "Shut up Stefan. I don't have time for your games, but I will tell you that you never really knew Katherine and you sure as hell don't know her now," he seethed. Stefan smirked smugly, shrugging his shoulders. **"If you're looking for Klaus' family it was a bad move. He's on to you now and it's going to be virtually impossible to get to those coffins unscathed," **he grumbled.

"Nothing is impossible," Damon challenged. **"We'll see about that."** With that Stefan disappeared, leaving Kat and Damon standing in front of a long row of storage units. "I don't know how he suspected we were on to him, unless of course one of your friends aren't so friendly with you and are instead loyal to him," he muttered, leading the way back to the car. If it was one of Katherine's allies there would be no way to tell who it was since they had spoke to over fifty people during their little investigation. He drove until he saw a small hotel. It wasn't fancy by any means, but it would do. He knew it wasn't up to Kat's standards but that didn't matter really, because he was exhausted from all the driving and it was the best he could do given the circumstances. Once he paid for the room he took their bags, bringing them to their room on the second floor before he collapsed on the bed. "Sometimes I wish I didn't care, it would make my life so much easier," he chuckled dryly, his gaze shifting to the ceiling. "Wanna teach me how to do that?" He asked her, but really he could turn it off for everyone but Elena. He had become too close to her to just write her off like she didn't matter. "Where are we going to go from here? I feel like we lost our greatest asset, which was the element of surprise," he reasoned with a shrug. "We don't even know where they're going now. Have any friends here we can use to figure that out? I'd ask Bonnie but I doubt she's strong enough to break any barriers that Klaus may have around him."

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

Katherine's connections ran deep and very far. She had run into many people throughout the course of her lifetime and those people stayed by her side, most of them not by choice, but out of obligation. Katherine did a lot of favors for a variety of different people from vampires to witches to werewolves to plain, ol' human beings. She got around and she made it a point to make friends along the way. Granted, Katherine really didn't have any true friends, she had people that would stand by her and support her until their debt was paid, but that left many dark holes that could be torn into her connections. Katherine wasn't the most feared being out there in the world and helping her try to play on Klaus' weaknesses made her friendships rather dangerous. There was no real doubt in her mind that Damon and she would be tracked, that someone would go and leak the information to get on Klaus' good graces and perhaps get out of any impending trouble, or stay out of trouble altogether. Klaus wasn't kind and no one had reason to question him or think that he had a heart. Katherine knew that he had had once, but he was much like her. Each had loved and lost what they held closest to them and those feelings left a bitter taste in each of their mouths. They had hearts, but they chose to cast their beating muscles to the side only to replace their hearts with blocks of ice. They were not people to love or be loved in return, they were nothing more than lost souls. Klaus spent so long trying to redeem himself to his family and that guilt had driven him to hide the very thing that he was most ashamed of, to hide the people that could point a finger at him and make him see all of the horrible things that he had done.

She was very much the same way. She always ran from the people that could point a finger at her. She liked to have fun, but not think about the consequences and that did tend to be a very dangerous combination. She hurt where she wanted to love and left being deeply rooted scars that could never be erased. There was no real hope for her. She was damaged and over the course of the next two weeks, even though she enjoyed her time with Damon, she knew she couldn't do this again. She kept her teasing personality and constantly dominated him because she was the stronger between the two, but she kept her games to a minimum because she was bouncing around the idea of giving up what she had, for a future of possible happiness. She wondered why love couldn't be a glove. A glove, fit to the right hand, was always perfect and had a little bit of stretch to it so that it was always comfortable and that was what she wanted, but she felt like she was trying to put on a left-hand glove on her right hand. It didn't work for her and the more that Damon obsessed over finding Elena and putting together the pieces that he had broken in an effort to save Katherine's life, she realized that Damon was probably using her. Katherine had volunteered to help not so much out of obligation, but out of a desire to help Damon; she never did anything because she felt honor-bound to do so. She was helping him because she wanted to and a dark seed had planted itself into the crevices of her brain and was rooting and growing with each day they were together.

Damon was using Katherine and she was sure of it. He had told her he wanted to run away with her, but a few weeks ago he had been so convinced that he hated her and wanted nothing to do with her. Why would that change so suddenly? But then why would he have gone to such measure to save her life if he didn't care? Katherine had never been this perplexed in her life, nor had she ever been this confused. When they got to the docks, Katherine could already sense that things weren't going to work in their favor and sure enough, when Stefan decided to show up, she knew that things were not going to go their way. Stefan had a loud mouth and when he brought up Elena, Katherine was smart enough to keep her eyes on Damon. She could see that Stefan's words were getting to him. She could see that hope and that desire for Elena to love him and she knew then that searching for love with Damon was futile. He would love Katherine a little, but love Elena more. She was the better of both worlds and Stefan was right, she was worth something. Instead of opening her mouth or letting Stefan get to her, she stayed silent, something uncharacteristic for her, but when Katherine was deep in thought she did tend to become less vocal. All Katherine did was nod her head, "Well if you put Klaus and I on a balancing scale, it would tip in his favor. He could do more damage than I ever could; people are more afraid of him than of me so of course they would talk," she grumbled as she got into the car.

Damon drove them to a little hotel… well motel was really more like it. He paid for their room and guided her up to the second floor and let her in. She locked the door behind herself and watched Damon flop himself onto the bed. She had remained silent for most of the drive and she had no idea what her next move would be. Klaus knew that they were onto him which meant that their lives were at great risk now and there was no doubt in Katherine's mind that Klaus would send some of his little minions after the two of them just to get the job done so Klaus wouldn't have to do it himself. Katherine walked over to the windows and pulled at the blinds to close them so that they couldn't be watched and as she was closing the second set, Damon spoke to her about not wanting to feel anything and then he said something that struck a nerve with her. _Wanna teach me how to do that?_ He asked, teach him how to not feel and Katherine felt any trust she had left for him, any feeling she had left for him, shatter into a million pieces at her feet and disappear with the steady flow of a hurricane wind. She stood there, facing the ugly brown drapes as he went on, not even acknowledging that what he said had sent Katherine on edge. Instead, he wanted to know what they were going to do next in their plan. "I have no fucking idea Damon." Her voice was hard and sharp; the kind of tone someone would figure would slip out of a snake if it could talk. "Why don't you find her by yourself? You're the only one alive that cares enough to sacrifice your life for her." She spat, pivoting on her heel so that she was facing him.

The displeasure was written clearly across her features, contorting her naturally pleasant looking face into stone; no one would dare to look in her eyes like this. Damon had yet to see Katherine's true fury. He had seen her play her games, but he had never seen her with blood in her eyes. She could see red flashing before her vision as she struggled to compose herself. The dark outlines of stringed web started to pulsate to the surface of her cheeks, descending down from her eyes as flecks of black began to consume her chocolate hues. These flashes of anger were rare for her, but difficult for her to tame and she had to swallow hard to cease her bloodlust because she knew that if it got a hold of her that she would drink Damon dry and sever his head from his body and shove her hand into his chest and pull out his heart so she could crush it between her fingers. "And that's what it is going to take—your life—and you won't win either." With the blink of an eye she was on top of Damon, straddling him at the waist in such a manner that both of his arms were locked at his sides, her fingers wrapped steadily around his neck, adding such pressure that her fingernails were digging into his flesh, steady streams of blood dripping down each puncture that she made. "If you wanna live, then I'll teach you how not to care. You want to know the secret Damon, hmm? You wanna know how to make life easier?" She whispered, her words coming out more like a hiss than anything else as she dipped her head down. "I can teach you. In fact, I can show you."

A sickening smile spread on her lips as she added pressure, her thumb dipping into his neck at the side, manipulating the bone so that his head had to turn in order to prevent from snapping. "You have to go to a very dark place. A place where you can't see anything, can't hear anything, can't feel anything, can't do anything. It's a peaceful place Damon." She purred a little, her lips descending to his ear, "That's how you stop caring Damon." She pulled away from him slightly so she could look into his blue eyes, eyes that were full of alarm. "You wanna know where the dark place is? I can take you there. It's easy really. And all you have to do is one thing Damon." Katherine chuckled slightly, smiling at him. "All you have to do is **die**." Katherine let go of his neck then, her mouth opening as her teeth protruded and her eyes descended into a dark abyss. The webs developed underneath her eyes as she sunk her fangs into Damon's jugular and started to drain him of his blood. She took and took and took until she could feel his body give underneath her, until she could feel him get so weak that he was no longer trying to fight her strength. Once she was sure he got the point, she pulled away from him. His blood oozed down her chin as she licked her lips. "I saw the look in your eyes when Stefan told you about Elena. You were hoping for that. Your brother may not be able to read you, but I can. And it doesn't really matter whether or not he was lying because you showed me what you really wanted." Katherine pulled away from him further, still straddling him because he needed to hear all of this. "You may have saved my life Damon, but you love her, you'll choose her. Maybe at the start you were trying to use Elena to replace me, but now you are trying to use me to replace Elena," she scoffed, "and I'm not stupid enough to be a replacement."

With that Katherine got to her feet and let him go. "And I'm certainly not dumb enough to put my life on the line to save a girl that will live anyways. Klaus isn't going to kill her, he needs her, he needs her blood and I'm sure Stefan has enough of his humanity to protect her. So what if she's a human blood bag for the rest of her life? Nothing bad will happen to her so long as she complies to what Klaus wants." Katherine went over to her purse and pulled out her journal. It was the one with enough of Klaus' information to let Damon take care of things on his own, but there were also plenty of new entries. Entries that encompassed the time over the last few weeks with Damon and her conflicted feelings; she had always felt that writing things down helped her to problem solve and that was why she tossed it over to him on the bed. "You can keep that." It would help him on his way. Teach him how to track Klaus because there were patterns that Katherine had picked up over the years and give him some of her connections, but more than anything she wanted him to know just what he was doing to her. How he had lifted feelings in her she had reserved for Stefan, but had now begun to feel for him. How she wanted to open up to Damon and try to make things work. How she had finally begun hoping that she had found that true love, that love that could be given and returned in equal measure. She wanted him to know that she had feelings, that she cared, and she wanted him to die in that knowledge. "I think we're even now Damon. I used you and now you used me." She walked back over to him and dug into his pocket for the keys to his car, "How does it feel to know that you wounded the heartless?"

**DAMON'S POV -**

Damon felt so conflicted as he laid there on the hotel bed, and all he really wanted was some reassurance from Katherine because she was the only one who could give it to him. The problem was, she didn't seem too interested in doing that for him, and the moment she spun around her words cut like knifes as she spat venom at him. What the hell had he done to deserve this attitude? She was the one who had been acting weird and pushing him away. He was a patient man, but a person could only take so much before they gave up. Of course, he had chased after her for over a hundred years so one bad month wasn't going to send him running which was probably why he hadn't really given much more thought to the fact that Elena possibly could have developed feelings for him. In his eyes, she was better off with Stefan as hard as that was to swallow, and she had made that choice countless times. Elena was like Katherine in many ways, and had hurt him too many times to count. On his death bed had been the final straw, because he felt like she had kissed him out of pity instead of love…and he never wanted to be kissed for that reason. His heart and mind had already made its choice, at least he thought so; he wanted Katherine, but he was seeing something in her he hadn't seen before and he was getting a little disturbed by it. He watched her eyes intently, observing the dark veins web beneath her dark umber pools as the devil shone through the windows to her soul that he was typically so attracted—but now, they looked sinister and not in a hot appealing way, either.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He asked her with a furrowed brow. "I know you don't like Elena, Kat…but I assumed you were doing this for me, not her anyway…" he trailed off. Before he get up and actually talk to her she was on top of him, her thighs straddling him so that his arms were pinned to his sides, and though he probably could've managed to push her off in that moment—he didn't. He wasn't sure why he was giving into her so easily, probably because he didn't want to take a step back; he didn't want to ruin the progress the two of them had made lately. Granted, it wasn't much progress. She had yet to say that she loved him and she wasn't very responsive when he did or said nice things to her. It made it hard for him, because despite how he came off he was actually a very emotional person and he liked showing those he loved just how much he did. That wasn't easy for him when Katherine was the total opposite, and he was trying to be patient, he was…but now as he gazed up into eyes he didn't recognize he began to think that the two of them really didn't have hope. That this would never work out because Katherine would never open up to him fully and give him emotionally what he wanted so badly in someone which was simply to be loved completely, and not just half way like she had done back in 1864. His breath began to cut off as her fingers wrapped around his neck, her nails digging into his skin until he let out a groan; his warm crimson rushing down over his shoulders and oozing down his back. He didn't need air to live, but he was definitely in pain.

"Katherine," he managed to groan through gritted teeth, but she was ignoring him; whispering words like a lover but they were poison to his ears. He squirmed underneath her, but she was older…and stronger; she would always have the advantage. He thought they were done when she released her grip, but he thought wrong. Instantly her fangs were piercing his hard skin like it was melted butter, his blood pooling into her mouth at a rapid rate. She was draining him dry and he could feel it. His limbs began to tingle, going numb as though they weren't even there. He was losing all proprioception and the room was beginning to dim as every ounce of energy was savagely stolen from him as it rushed into her warm belly. Damon was dizzy when she finally pulled away, red liquid dripping down her chin as she got down to the real reason she was so pissed. He glared at her, finding it hard to do anything else but he was completely livid. She had a lot of nerve throwing this at him as though he had done something wrong. She was such a hypocrite, and even if it took all of his energy he wasn't going to let her leave without him getting in a say. He tried to conserve his voice, listening to her carry on. She had this all wrong. She was so focused on being self righteous she didn't even care if she was mistaken, but that was Katherine for you; more concerned with her pride than the reality and truth of the situation. He looked at her with cold eyes; again she was missing the point. He knew Klaus wouldn't hurt Elena, but the bottom line was she didn't deserve to live her life as a prisoner.

She was young, and she was warranted an education and choices. Just because they were all miserable as vampires didn't mean she had to be too. His crystal gaze followed the journal as it dropped to the bed at his side, fire flashing in his own eyes as they fastened in on her, completely unforgiving. "You coward, don't you dare leave," he choked out, his voice hoarse and weak, but determined to get out all that he needed. "You don't get to leave me feeble and unable to take care of myself just so you can get out and have the last word. Life doesn't work that way," he snapped. "Wake up and smell the fucking coffee." His azure oceans reflected the pain he was feeling, not just physically but emotionally as well. "You're going to fault me for feeling something for Elena? For loving her?" He asked completely exasperated. "Really? This coming from the woman who led two brothers on, fucking both of them at the same time while she turned them against one another without the slightest bit of guilt or regret," he scoffed, shaking his head; the wounds on his neck still severe because he didn't have enough blood to heal himself. He could still feel the bone where her finger had mercilessly manipulated him. "I chose you. I saved you. I told you I loved you Katherine and I wanted to run away with you, and what did you do? Nothing, you said I was cute and barely acknowledged what I said. I know you're screwed up emotionally, but for Christ's sake. I'm trying here, I'm really trying…and you? You're throwing things in my face," he muttered, coughing as spewed blood splattered across his white t-shirt and over his lips and chin.

"Of course I love Elena, Katherine. I will always hold some kind of fondness for her because she stirred up the humanity in me, she made me a better man…a better person. I forgot that it's actually good to be nice once in a while instead of a callous asshole. And if you don't like this me then we're not meant to be together, but don't you dare play the pity card and act like I have wounded you," he murmured with a shake of his head. "I told you I love you, and I made it obvious what my choice was and I'm not gonna chase you around like a love struck fool anymore. I'm not saying you're not worth it, I'm just saying I did it before and I wasted a century of my life because you didn't choose me in the end anyway. You haven't even chosen me now," he got quiet for a moment, surprised that she was even sticking around to hear him out. "And trust me, I'm not discounting your feelings because I'm sure you have them somewhere deep down in there for me, but the thing is you don't show them…and it's a little hard to measure what you see fleeting glimpses of and never hear. Besides, you just tried to kill me because you are a crazy bitch and you're about to take my favorite car," he chortled, forcing a painful laugh. There was a part of him that thought maybe he was dying, but so be it if that was the case. Katherine could leave, and he would just lay there, praying that room service would come in by morning—and hopefully he could survive the night—and then he could have them for breakfast and be on his merry way. Whether Katherine liked it or not he wasn't giving up this mission to rescue Elena or his brother and if he had to he would do it without her.

**KATHERINE'S POV -**

Katherine had already made up her mind and quite frankly she didn't know why she was staying to listen to him talk. Maybe she was hoping that he would find the strength to get up and stop her, but he didn't. He didn't get up and Katherine was convinced that if he loved her enough that he would get to his feet and he would come to her, he would come and love her. He would show everything she meant to him rather than her having to listen to him, but it was too much to ask of him. It wasn't fair. She could feel her heart tearing at the seams and yet she didn't stop any of it. All she could manage to do was stare at him, that was it. She looked at him and wanted to run because she knew that he was right. Somewhere, deep down, she knew that all she was doing was running from the good thing she had. She was scared and he was terrifying her and this was how she was coping with it. She found some excuse that she could turn on him and blame him for so it wasn't her fault for leaving. The sad part was that, in her mind, she had every right to be mad at him. Every word he said sunk into her brain and her heart read it all as a lie. He made it sound as though he wanted her, but he still needed her to find Klaus and help him rescue Elena from that evil original. Katherine would be collateral damage and she knew it. If she went and got caught in the line of fire, Damon would choose Elena over him and so she wasn't going to put her life on the line for Elena or for Damon.

She was genuinely surprised that Damon had put up with her for as long as she did and, even though she felt betrayed and possibly had no right to feel as she did, she turned around, keys in hand and she walked out. Katherine left him there on the bed battered and bruised and bleeding. She left him there, but she wouldn't let him die. He wasn't close to giving out, but Katherine wasn't stupid. She wasn't going to run and have his life on her mind, she always had a fail-safe so as the door closed behind her, she came up with a plan. She went downstairs and to the back where the small pool was located and she walked up to two of the teenage couple that were inside of it skinny dipping. When she had their attention, she looked at them, compelling them to do as she wanted. "In ten minutes, you are going to go up to room 2B on the second floor. Here is the key to get in. These are the keys to his car, you are going to give them to him. You will go to the man in the bed and let him feed from you and take your blood. You will not scream, you will not protest. You will let him drain you dry." When she was done, she put the key to the room and the keys to his car down at the edge of the pool and Katherine left. She broke into one of the Hondas in the parking lot and she drove off with it, leaving Damon behind even though she really didn't want to. She didn't know where she was going to go, but it was going to be far away where he couldn't find her and far enough away that she would have time to think about going back to him, time enough to dissuade herself from running back to him. Katherine was done with Mystic Falls, she was done with the Salvatore brothers, she was done needlessly pursuing love. No more… no more. And for the first time since being locked in the tomb, she let a few silent tears fall down her cheeks.


End file.
